It did glide briefly, the glide path took it directly into a school building. Right after takeoff at low altitude is basically the worst place for this to happ

It did glide briefly, the glide path took it directly into a school building. Right after takeoff at low altitude is basically the worst place for this to happen. Speed and altitude are low so gliding is going to be a short distance and happen quickly. If there had been a perfect empty long flat grass field in that location it may have been salvageable, but also right after takeoff the plane usually has a heavy fuel load which makes for a much riskier landing. Edit: This article has a map showing the glide path: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/12/air-india-flight-171-plane-crash-what-we-know-ahmedabad-gatwick https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/12/air-india-flig...