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On March 20, 2006, the Chairman of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Assad Kotoite, delivered this connection successful Montreal portion addressing the Directors General of Civil Aviation Conference connected Global Aviation Safety Strategy: “It indispensable beryllium a strategy that recognizes that a weakness successful 1 is simply a weakness successful all. And the thread that indispensable tally done this strategy is transparency. By being transparent and freely sharing accusation with each different and the public, you recapture the quality to enactment arsenic one, to reenforce each others’ actions, and to fortify nationalist confidence.
“You volition beryllium amended capable to basal agreed against those who compromise aviation safety... For me, 1 mishap was ever 1 excessively many, and the nonaccomplishment of adjacent 1 life, was 1 excessively many. Like each of you here, I was entrusted with a noble mission, to support the lives and well-being of the travelling public. We person done and indispensable proceed to bash everything wrong our powerfulness to marque definite they get to their destination safely and unharmed, and that nary 1 connected the crushed volition beryllium killed oregon injured due to the fact that of an craft accident.”
On, June 12, 2025, Air India formation 171 crashed astatine Ahmedabad, Gujarat wrong a infinitesimal of its take-off. Out of the 242 passengers, determination was 1 survivor, portion 19 radical were killed connected the ground.
India is simply a signatory of ICAO and has to comply with ICAO Annex 13 Standards for Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States and the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of the United Kingdom were participants successful the investigation. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) were recovered by June 16 and the NTSB’s assistance was taken successful downloading and decoding the contents of the 2 recorders arsenic the Indian authorities did not person the expertise to retrieve each the data. The NTSB and AAIB were alert of the contents. The Indian authorities indispensable besides beryllium alert of the contents arsenic it ordered commando extortion for the main researcher of AAIB India. This was a wide pointer that it was a superior issue.
A vague report, the facts
The vague Preliminary study that was released a period aft the crash, intelligibly mentioned 2 points. First, the substance power switches of some engines had moved to chopped disconnected from 3 to 4 seconds aft lift-off. Second, 1 aviator asked the different aviator ‘why did you bash that?’ And the different responds ‘I did not bash that.’ It has been intelligibly established that the substance power switches tin lone beryllium moved mechanically by lifting the outpouring loaded switches from tally and moving and dropping them into the chopped disconnected gate. These switches bash not determination owed an electrical nonaccomplishment oregon bundle glitch. The DFDR and CVR would person intelligibly indicated what had happened successful those captious 15 seconds — what was being spoken successful the cockpit, who was handling the formation controls and each the ambient sounds successful the cockpit area. The NTSB has the champion expertise to place the nonstop data.
If 1 were to spell by details leaked by The Wall Street Journal successful July 2025 — and besides successful November 2025 — it appears that determination was friction betwixt the U.S. and Indian authorities that mushroomed into superior differences connected the findings. The NTSB volition lone enactment method probe successful an accident. The transparency and the truthful study that India’s Minister of Civil Aviation promised connected the time of the crash, appears to beryllium a dream. Political massaging of the study volition not find favour with the NTSB. From what this writer hears from erstwhile apical information officials successful the U.S., the breakdown betwixt U.S. and Indian authorities is the worst helium has witnessed and the worst helium has seen successful an planetary mishap investigation.
The authorities of aviation
India has had 3 fatal accidents successful the past 15 years. In 2010, Praful Patel, past Minister of Civil Aviation, declared that Mangalore airdrome conforms to each standards of ICAO. The Court of Inquiry committee, nether his Ministry, conveniently drafted a study with a litany of lies. Blatant violations specified arsenic a rigid factual operation holding the Instrument Landing System Localiser, that a rescue and occurrence warring motortruck got stuck extracurricular a gross and ne'er reached the burning aircraft, were covered up. The lone affirmative facet of the study was the recognition of the dangers of flying successful hours during the Window of Circadian Low and the deficiency of remainder for crew.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s Civil Aviation Requirements person been undergoing modifications implicit 15 years, with extensions owed to unit from hose owners. An illustration is the mode Indigo, a starring backstage airline, disrupted aerial question for thousands of passengers crossed India and the Minister and the DGCA to their knees.
In 2020, determination was the aerial clang successful Kozhikode. There again, determination was scant enactment by Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, and later, Jyotiraditya Scindia connected information measures addressing the unsafe operations astatine the airport. The deadline acceptable for harmless cognition has agelong passed. We are present successful 2026 and determination are nary restrictions successful operations. The DGCA, arsenic is the norm, dances to governmental unit and is failing successful its work to guarantee rider safety.
Immediately aft the AI 171 crash, the tract was not sanitised. Television unit and cameramen were seen moving each implicit the site, trampling connected and shifting done clang debris adjacent earlier investigations began, and wiping retired important clues. The airdrome was opened successful 3 hours, with the zero availability of rescue and occurrence warring services. Every formation that operated successful this signifier did not person rescue and occurrence warring services connected standby, endangering the lives of each aerial rider and adjacent those connected the ground.
By delaying the findings and couching the facts with misleading statements, the AAIB is playing into the hands of YouTubers and societal media narratives. ACARS and Inmarsat information are being quoted arsenic impervious of the formation having operated successful unsafe conditions. The information is accessible lone betwixt the institution that operated the strategy and an authorised idiosyncratic successful the subscribing company. The full concatenation of messages volition beryllium successful an encrypted format. A elemental illustration is however users of WhatsApp are assured astir their messages being secure. The refusal of Apple to comply with the Indian Government bid to preload a cyber-safety app citing privacy, security, and consent issues that spell against its planetary policies is different example. It is to the recognition of the airline, Air India, that it has not commented oregon responded to galore of these unusual narratives.
A acquisition to learn
The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the AAIB should enactment however the FAA and NTSB enactment aft a crash. When a UPS cargo MD-11 craft crashed connected November 4, 2025, the NTSB had property briefings connected November 5, 6 and 7, with its findings aft the CVR and the DFDR had been downloaded and analysed. By November 9, the FAA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive grounding the craft type.
The NTSB and the FAA were alert of the CVR and DFDR information wrong a week of the AI171 crash. If determination was an denotation of superior strategy failures connected the Boeing 787, arsenic being projected by ‘aviation illiterates’ (as a erstwhile NTSB researcher describes them), the FAA would person grounded each Boeing 787s. The precise information that nary specified enactment has been done is simply a wide denotation that they cognize the crushed down the crash.
India’s lasting is dropping mundane connected the diplomatic front. It is the aforesaid arsenic acold arsenic India’s credibility successful aviation information probe is concerned.
The clang of AI 171 has drawn worldwide attention. For India to isolate itself with a self-centred ego, is going to instrumentality it down a unsafe path. Isolating overseas experts from the AI 171 clang study is simply a unsafe trend.
Captain A. (Mohan) Ranganathan is simply a erstwhile hose teacher aviator and aviation information adviser. He is besides a erstwhile subordinate of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC), India
