Comment by stetrain

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-flig...