India, June 14 -- In this week of absolute tragedy, it is a moment for us to stand in solidarity with Air India. I am writing this in Vienna, sitting on the tarmac of the airport, where our Air India flight from Newark to New Delhi has been diverted, along with several others because of Israel's overnight strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. The aviation challenge - seven Air India flights have been diverted to Vienna alone - has been necessitated because the Iran airspace is closed and the Pakistan airspace has been closed since Operation Sindoor. The aircraft needs more fuel for this unforecastable geopolitical development and a new flight path to take us home. Captain Sunil Simon, crew members Suresh, Khushboo, among others are all well beyond their duty hours. But no one has shown a single sign of irritability or strain. That this has happened hours after the horrific crash of London-bound Air India 171, less than a minute after take-off, makes this stellar professionalism even more remarkable. Imagine, operating in the traumatic overhang of losing your colleagues and friends to an air crash. Consider what the last few hours have been like for the airline staff to have to remain stoic, even smiling, in the immediate aftermath of a massive personal tragedy. And now this latest strain on their emotions and mental strength. Yet, how many of us will take a moment to appreciate the airline. If anything, it's something of a lazy habit for many Indians to take potshots at the airline, even while choosing it when flying elderly parents abroad, because they know fully well that western airlines will never offer that personal touch. The same people would not even whisper a protest in the face of borderline racism on some airlines. Think about the crash and the sweeping armchair commentary that followed in sections of social media. One publicity-seeker went from studio to studio cribbing about how the air conditioning had not worked well on the Delhi-Ahmedabad leg of the plane that crashed, making an absolutely inaccurate link to the tragedy. And he was allowed to do so. Others did not hesitate to make generalisations about the airline or the pilot in command. I am no aviation expert but the alacrity with which some sought to blame pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Captain Clive Kunder, was ghoulish and frankly, tone deaf and callous. We put a timer on the CCTV footage of the crash to show how Captain Sabharwal had only 33 seconds in which to make an intervention. On the CCTV footage you can see the plane take off smoothly and by the clock, half a minute later, it descends, erupting into an orange ball of fire on impact. Those who really understand aviation and planes point out that when you do not even have a whole minute to respond, Captain Sabharwal did the only thing he could. He made a Mayday distress call to the air traffic controller. In other crashes, where an engine has failed, because the plane is already cruising, the pilot has been able to bring it down, let's say on water or a safe patch. Here, the pilot was not able to lift the plane to a higher altitude; he clearly seemed to lose power immediately after take-off and he literally had no options. Think for a moment of that man at the helm of a split-second response before his life and the lives of the passengers at the back, literally went up in smoke. Think of how a universe can be upended in 32 seconds. And at least then, some of us might be less cavalier and casual in our commentary. Aerospace engineering expert Aditya Paranjape, a professor at Monash University, told me that "prima facie... there is no human error. That the plane was able to take off smoothly shows the configurations entered by the pilots were accurate." He believes, like many other experts I spoke with, that both engines appear to have failed, however rare that may be. While there may be questions about maintenance, surely there should be many sharp questions for Boeing, the manufacturer of the 787 Dreamliner that went down in Ahmedabad. Especially if the investigation reveals that both engines did, in fact, collapse on take-off. This would be the time to go back to the appearance of the Boeing CEO before a US Senate Panel. He actually admitted to "serious safety missteps". This hearing took place after the door of an Alaskan Airlines 737-Max blew out. Isn't he the one playing with lives? Shouldn't some of our contempt and anger be directed at corporate behemoths like Boeing? Over the years, there have been management issues with Air India. When the airline was government-owned (across parties) it was not able to unshackle itself from a sarkari subculture. When the ill-conceived and unplanned merger of Indian Airlines and Air India took place under the UPA government, the airline took a hit. And now that the Tatas have given Air India a new beginning, its staff - pilots and crew - should not be shackled by capitalist corporate norms. Not when it comes to a profession that literally can be about life and death. On the plane just now - we are still on the ground a few hours later - a huge round of applause went up when the Captain announced that the crew had agreed to work well beyond their stipulated shifts and in what is meant to be their rest period (with official dispensation) to try and get us all home. As families across India mourn - a father who lost both his daughters, a husband who came home with his wife's ashes, a couple who posted a last selfie only to go down with the plane - the rest of us should show humility, and some gratitude and grace....