Srinagar, June 13 -- Two hundred and forty-two people boarded Flight AI-171 on Thursday. Only one left the wreckage alive. The rest vanished into twisted metal and smoke, never to return home.

Since the crash, officials have spoken of system failures, and split-second decisions. We've heard it all before. These aren't answers, they're habits. A way to name the tragedy without facing the decay beneath it.

This crash didn't come out of nowhere. It was built, piece by piece, by years of skipped safety audits, underfunded regulators, missing accountability, and a culture that still treats public safety as a footnote.

Every time something like this happens, we act surprised. We shouldn't be. India's aviation sector has grown fast, but it ha...