'Was this avoidable?': Families of Air India crash victims seek answers
When the report was finally released early on Saturday in India, he read it carefully - only to be disappointed by what he said "reads like a product description".
"Other than the pilots' final conversation, there's nothing in it that really points to what caused the crash."
He hopes more details will be made public in the months to come.
"This matters to us," Ali said. "We want to know exactly what happened. It won't change anything for us now, we continue grieving - just as we have since that day. But at least we'll have some answers."
The London-bound Air India flight 171 crashed into a suburban neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on 12 June, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground.
A preliminary investigative report released on Saturday in India said fuel to the engines of the plane cut off just seconds after take-off. The circumstances around how or why that happened remain unclear.
The report said that in recovered cockpit voice recordings, one of the pilots can be heard asking "why did you cut off?" - to which the other pilot replied he "did not do so".
A final report into the crash is expected in 12 months.
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Shweta Parihar, 41, also wants answers. Her husband, Abhinav Parishar, 43, was on his way back to London. He was meant to fly later in the month but decided to come home early and ended up on the ill-fated flight.
She laments that no investigation will ever bring her husband back.
"For those of us that have lost loved ones, we've lost them, they are not coming back," she said.
"What will they do in the investigation, tell us how it happened? The life of how many people, 250 passengers, what will they say, sorry? Everything is done, everything is finished."
Parihar becomes emotional when she talks about the impact of the loss on her 11-year-old son Vihaan.
"He misses his dad badly," she said tearfully. Vihaan tells her that he won't fly Air India ever again.
Badasab Syed, 59, lost his brother, sister-in-law, and their two children in the crash.
He was hoping for answers from the preliminary report, but after watching the news, said he was left with more questions.
"The report mentions the pilots discussing who turned off fuel and a possible issue with the fuel control switch. We don't know, what does that mean? Was this avoidable?"
Badasab Syed says his younger brother, Inayat Syed, 49 was the heart of the family. Losing him, his wife and children, has shattered the entire family. The grief has been especially difficult on his 83-year-old mother, Bibi Sab.
"Losing her son and grandchildren has made her weak. I think she is not able to even tell us how she feels," he said.
Who are the victims of the Air India plane crash?
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Air India crash report points to chip malfunction, says analyst
STORY: :: This video contains content some people may find distressing :: June 13, 2025 A preliminary report into last month's fatal Air India crash depicted confusion in the cockpit after the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches flipped almost simultaneously and starved the engines of fuel. :: June 12, 2025 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust and sink shortly after takeoff. :: Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau The report from Indian accident investigators did not say how the switches could have flipped to the cutoff position during the flight. CHAN: "From reading the findings..." Former pilot and senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University Marco Chan says he believes it was a chip malfunction rather than human error that led to the crash. He points to a previously issued service bulletin from the engine manufacturer advising maintenance of a flawed chip to prevent signal loss. :: Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau 'I believe the FAA has - together with GE, General Electric, the engine manufacturer - has issued a service bulletin, i.e. I believe it was about 11,000 cycles, they will have to replace the chip. And if it is not replaced or maintenance isn't done correctly, it could lead to intermittent loss of signal. Once you have a loss of signal, the fuel isn't commanded i.e. in the cut off position, then there's no fuel going to the engine.' Chan says it would be a challenge for pilots to accidentally move the switches into the cutoff position. 'You have to physically sort of - not pull the pin - but if you have to pull the toggle out, then it can move to a different position. So, you do have to do it on purpose, not accidental knocking it to the wrong position. Very rarely that can happen, or close to zero.' :: June 12, 2025 At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position and there had been indications of both engines relighting before the low-altitude crash, the report showed. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was bound for London from India's Ahmedabad. The crash killed 260 people, making it the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade.
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An official report on the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade has answered one key question – but raised others. Air India flight AI171 had barely left the runway last month when it lost momentum and crashed in a densely populated area of India's western city of Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. Now, a preliminary report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has revealed that fuel supply to both engines was cut in the crucial minutes as the aircraft was ascending. The plane's 'black box,' its flight data recorder, showed that the aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines' fuel switches were 'transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one,' the report says. The switches were flipped within a second of each other, halting the flow of fuel. On an audio recording from the black box, mentioned in the report, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he flipped the switches. The other pilot responds that he did not do so. The report does not specify who was the pilot and who was the co-pilot in the dialogue. Seconds later, the switches on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were flipped the other way to turn the fuel supply back on. Both engines were able to relight, and one began to 'progress to recovery,' the report said, but it was too late to stop the plane's gut-wrenching descent. The report reveals the fundamental reason why the jet crashed, but much remains unexplained. Prev Next The findings do not make clear how the fuel switches were flipped to the cutoff position during the flight, whether it was deliberate, accidental or if a technical fault was responsible. On Boeing's 787 Dreamliners, the fuel switches are between the two pilots' seats, immediately behind the plane's throttle levers. They are protected on the sides by a metal bar. The switches require an operator to physically lift the switch handle up and over a detent – a catch – as they are deliberately designed so they can't be knocked accidentally. Geoffrey Dell, an air safety specialist who has conducted numerous aircraft accident investigations, finds it hard to see how both switches could have been flipped in error. 'It's at least a two-action process for each one,' he told CNN. 'You've got to pull the switch out towards you and then push it down. It's not the sort of thing you can do inadvertently.' According to Dell, it would be 'bizarre' for a pilot to deliberately cut fuel to both engines immediately after take-off. There is 'no scenario on the planet where you'd do that immediately after lift-off,' he said. Pointing to the fact that both engine switches were flipped within a second of each other, Dell noted: 'That's the sort of thing you do when you park the airplane at the end of the flight… You plug into the terminal and shut the engines down.' One possibility the report raises relates to an information bulletin issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 about 'the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature.' But, given that this was not considered an unsafe condition, Air India did not carry out inspections. Dell said an aircraft's flight data recorder should help explain how the fuel switches were flipped in each case. However, India's AAIB has not released a full transcript of the conversation between the two pilots. Without it, Dell says it's difficult to understand what happened. Former pilot Ehsan Khalid also believes that the report's findings raised questions over the position of the vital engine fuel switches, which, he said, should be clarified by the investigators. Speaking to Reuters, Khalid warned against pinning the blame on the pilots. 'The AAIB report to me is only conclusive to say that the accident happened because both engines lost power.' He added: 'The pilots were aware that the aircraft engine power has been lost, and pilots also were aware that they did not do any action to cause this.' A full report is not due for months and India's Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, said: 'Let's not jump to any conclusions at this stage.' The Air India jet took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India's western state of Gujarat on June 12, bound for London Gatwick. Air India had said 242 passengers and crew members were on board. That included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger. The 19 people on the ground were killed when the plane crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel. Air India has acknowledged that it has received the report and said it will continue cooperating with authorities in the investigation. CNN's Alexandra Skores, Aaron Cooper and Hira Humayun contributed reporting.
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