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Air India plane crash: AAIB submits preliminary report

Air India plane crash: AAIB submits preliminary report

Muscat Daily08-07-2025
New Delhi, India – Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has submitted the preliminary report on the AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the concerned authorities, sources said on Tuesday.
According to sources, the report is based on the initial findings of the probe of the Air India plane crash in which more than 250 people were killed.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on June 25, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data downloaded at the AAIB Lab. Sources familiar with the process told ANI that an identical black box, referred to as a 'golden chassis', was used to confirm whether data could be accurately recovered from the black boxes. One black box was recovered from the rooftop of a building at the crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16.
The investigation is being led by AAIB officials and includes technical members from the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) from the United States, which is the official investigative agency of the country of the aircraft's design and manufacture.
The Director General of AAIB is heading the probe. An aviation medicine expert and an Air Traffic Control officer have also been included in the investigation team. Sources confirmed that the NTSB team is currently stationed in Delhi and working closely with Indian authorities at the AAIB Lab. Officials from Boeing and GE are also present in the national capital to assist with the technical process.
Before the crash of Air India Flight AI-171, AAIB used to send black boxes of damaged aircraft and, in some cases, even helicopters to overseas decoding centres in countries like the UK, USA, France, Italy, Canada, and Russia. Indian labs earlier lacked the equipment and dedicated facility to retrieve black box data from serious aviation accidents. That has now changed, and the AAIB Lab in Delhi is fully equipped to decode both Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) within the country.
In earlier crashes, black box decoding was mostly done abroad. In the 1996 Charkhi Dadri crash, black boxes were decoded by IAC in Moscow and the CVR in Farnborough, UK. In the 2010 Mangalore crash, recorders were repaired and decoded by the NTSB in the US. In the 2015 Delhi crash, decoding was done at the engineering lab of Canada's Transportation Safety Board. In the 2020 Kozhikode crash, the CVR and FDR were downloaded at DGCA's flight recorder facility, but the data was processed with help from the NTSB.
ANI
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Air India crash: US body says media reports 'premature'
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The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Friday that media reports on the reasons behind the Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash which killed 270 were speculative and premature. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is investigating the accident, had released a preliminary report last week which raised questions about the engine fuel cutoff switches. Since the report came out, there have been several media reports speculating over the cause of the crash in Indian and Western media, pointing to a possible pilot error. The report itself has been condemned for not providing enough information. What did the US agency say about the Air India crash report? The NTSB is an investigative agency that investigates civil transportation accidents. "Recent media reports on the Air India 171 crash are premature and speculative. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau just released its preliminary report. Investigations of this magnitude take time," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement shared on X. According to the AAIB report, in the blackbox voice recording , "one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff," and the other pilot "responded that he did not do so." First officer Clive Kunder was believed to be flying the plane while Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was monitoring, hence it has been assumed that his hands were free to toggle with the fuel switch. The switches were restored 10 seconds later but the plane crashed, having already lost thrust. The report did not clarify what caused the engine fuel to cut off. How has media reported on the cause of the crash? Some media reports and aviation experts have speculated that Sabharwal could have been suicidal and intentionally switched off the fuel. The AAIB had condemned western media reports for being "irresponsible" and drawing conclusions "through selective and unverified reporting," Times of India reported. The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) sent legal notices to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, saying the findings were "neither substantiated by the official investigation nor endorsed by any competent authority," newspaper The New Indian Express said. India's Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu urged the press and people not to "jump to conclusions" and wait for the final report.

"Premature and speculative": NTSB slams media reports on AI-171 crash investigation
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Washington DC : The US federal agency, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), responsible for the investigation of aviation accidents and significant transportation events in the country, on Friday (local time) issued a strong rebuke of recent media coverage made over the preliminary investigative report on the aftermath of the ill-fated Air India 171 crash that claimed 260 lives in Gujarat's Ahmedabad last month. Calling the media reports "premature and speculative", the NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, in a statement, urged the public and media to await official findings by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the probe into the crash incident, before drawing a conclusion based on the preliminary investigative report. "Recent media reports on the Air India 171 crash are premature and speculative. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau just released its preliminary report. Investigations of this magnitude take time. We fully support the AAIB's public appeal, which was released Thursday, and will continue to support its ongoing investigation. All investigative questions should be addressed to the AAIB," Homendy stated. This came following AAIB's public appeal issued on Thursday noting a strong appeal to the public and media, raising concerns about "selective and unverified reporting" by certain international outlets in the aftermath of the crash. The AAIB, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, reaffirmed that the investigation into the Air India crash is being conducted in a "rigorous and most professional manner in accordance with the AAIB Rules and international protocols." The Bureau cautioned that the high-profile nature of the tragedy has "drawn public attention and shock," but emphasised, "it needs to be appreciated that this is not the time to create public anxiety or angst towards the safety of the Indian Aviation Industry, particularly on the basis of unfounded facts." The appeal came amid heightened global scrutiny following reports in international media. A Wall Street Journal report, cited by Reuters, suggests that cockpit voice recordings indicate the captain may have turned off the fuel control switches shortly after takeoff, which prompted confusion and panic in the cockpit. AAIB cautioned against drawing premature conclusions or circulating unverified information, particularly by sections of the international media, which they said risked undermining the integrity of the investigation. "It is essential to respect the sensitivity of the loss faced by family members of deceased passengers, crew of the aircraft and other deceased persons on the ground. It has come to our attention that certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting. Such actions are irresponsible, especially while the investigation remains ongoing. We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," the letter read. The Bureau reiterated that the objective of its investigation and preliminary report is to state "WHAT happened". It clarified that at this stage, "it is too early to reach any definite conclusions," and the final report will be published only after the investigation is complete, including the identification of "root causes and recommendations". The purpose of the AAIB's investigation and preliminary report is to provide information about 'WHAT' happened. The preliminary report must be viewed in this light. At this stage, it is too early to reach any definite conclusions. The AAIB investigation is still ongoing. The Final Investigation Report will come out with root causes and recommendations, the letter read.

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