One year since AI-171 crash, pilots body questions delay in releasing final probe report

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The June 2025 incidental  claimed 261 lives — 242 onboard and 19 connected  the crushed  connected  the premises of B.J. Medical College’s hostel wherever  the Boeing 787 crashed.

The June 2025 incidental claimed 261 lives — 242 onboard and 19 connected the crushed connected the premises of B.J. Medical College’s hostel wherever the Boeing 787 crashed. | Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji

On the archetypal day of Air India formation AI-171 clang successful Ahmedabad, the Federation of Indian Pilots has questioned the hold successful releasing the last probe report. It urged authorities not to people an incomplete interim report, informing that it could adhd to disorder and speculation connected the origin of the accident.

“We are astatine 1 twelvemonth since the crash. Why is the AAIB [Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau] incapable to analyse a formation of 32 seconds?” the federation’s president C.S. Randhawa asked astatine a property league successful Ahmedabad.

The June 2025 incidental claimed 261 lives — 242 onboard and 19 connected the crushed connected the premises of B.J. Medical College’s hostel wherever the Boeing 787 crashed. A preliminary probe study recovered that the aircraft’s substance power switches had moved to the cut-off position, interrupting substance proviso to the engines moments earlier the crash. While the study stopped abbreviated of determining whether the power question was the effect of a deliberate enactment oregon inadvertently done oregon a method malfunction, it included a little cockpit speech betwixt the plane’s 2 pilots that has triggered wide speculation connected the origin of the accident.

Pilot associations person condemned the inclusion of the excerpt, arguing that it has contributed to the gathering of a communicative astir aviator engagement earlier the probe reached a definitive conclusion. The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), on with Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, begetter of the flight’s commander, Sumeet Sabharwal, has approached the Supreme Court, seeking an independent, judicially monitored probe into the crash.

On Wednesday, Mr. Randhawa warned that an incomplete, interim study could origin much confusion. “If determination are nary conclusive findings, we person asked the authorities to hold until the probe is concluded and people the last report,” helium added.

Comment | The forgotten copilot of Air India formation 171

‘Engine information being analysed successful the U.S.’

UN aviation information watchdog International Civil Aviation Organisation’s norms urge that a last mishap probe study beryllium released “as soon arsenic possible” and, wherever feasible, wrong 12 months of the occurrence.

However, the authorities has invoked a proviso that permits states to contented an interim connection connected each day of an mishap if the last study could not beryllium completed wrong a year. Such a connection is required to outline the advancement of the probe and item immoderate information issues identified successful the probe.

Government officials said an interim study connected the Air India AI-171 clang would beryllium released connected Thursday. They added that investigation of information from the aircraft’s engines, manufactured by U.S.-based General Electric, was inactive underway astatine the manufacturer’s facilities successful the United States, contributing to the hold successful releasing the last report.

The officials besides said that according to an investigation of mishap probe data, connected average, countries took 20-22 months to reason the probe.

According to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) yearly information report, 374 aviation accidents were recorded globally betwixt 2018 and 2025, of which 52 were fatal. However, last probe reports person been released successful lone 47% of these cases, with the remaining investigations inactive pending.

Captain Amit Singh, laminitis of the Safety Matters Foundation, said determination were capable indications of imaginable electrical failures that warranted a thorough probe alternatively than prematurely attributing the clang to aviator actions. “As the craft was taking off, fume tin beryllium seen emanating from the wheels, which could bespeak a malfunction successful the brake-system, which is electronic,” helium said astatine a property conference. He claimed that exigency locator transmitter besides did not work, which could besides beryllium owed to an electrical fault.

Published - June 11, 2026 09:33 p.m. IST

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