Waiting for closure on AI 171 crash, India is still flying blind on aviation safety

The Print

a day ago

There's mystery surrounding the black box as well, particularly regarding the analysis of the data captured in its recorders. As this data would be critical in revealing the cause of the crash, the location of where the black box has been opened and analysed is a talking point. A week after the crash, the civil aviation ministry had said that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) — under the civil aviation ministry —would decide on where the data would be decoded. When reports started surfacing about the black box being sent to the United States, officials clarified that the data was actually being analysed in India. Was there a change of mind — and if so, why?
Conspiracy theories on social media and elsewhere on what caused the crash have complicated matters in the absence of any official indication so far, despite the black box being found without much damage soon after the accident. According to reports, there were two black box units on the aircraft that crashed — one was recovered on June 13 and another on June 16. Numerous 'preliminary reports'' are doing the rounds, highlighting a range of reasons for one of the biggest air disasters. The blame has been fixed on everything from sabotage to faulty seat configurations, pilot error to engine malfunctioning in these reports, which are being flagged as artificial intelligence-generated fake content.
Within a week or so, the preliminary report on the crash of Air India flight 171 is expected to be out, but it may or may not be conclusive. Until there's closure on the June 12 crash of the Boeing 787 — which went down seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 people on board and 34 on the ground — millions who saw the plane burst into a ball of fire in repeated television replays may struggle to get their confidence back in flying. The truth about what triggered the fatal crash of the Dreamliner should not only help bring the guilty to book, but also outline the future course of action in aviation safety. At this point, the truth is elusive.
As a recent report in Business Standard pointed out, a key recommendation after the Kozhikode air crash in August 2020 —in which Air India Express aircraft from Dubai overshot the runway during landing in heavy rain, killing 21 people—was that India must develop its own laboratory to analyse flight data and cockpit voice recorders (black box). In April 2025, about two months before the Ahmedabad crash and five years after the Kozhikode accident, a black box laboratory (as part of the AAIB) was inaugurated. The confusion around where the black box would be decoded ended up putting a question mark on the efficiency of the black box lab, which came into being some 13 years after the AAIB was set up in New Delhi.
People in the aviation community claim they have a fair idea of what caused the crash last month. While the preliminary report has to come out within a month of the accident, which is July 12 in this case, many experts believe there's no reason to wait that long if the black box data has already been analysed.
That brings us to the significance of communication during a crisis. In the initial days after the crash, Air India was perceived as non-communicative. N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons and Air India, admitted as much in a media interview and said the airline was doing a course correction. Soon after, Air India Chief Executive and Managing Director Campbell Wilson reached out to passengers through mailers explaining the reasons for flight cancellations, and assuaging their fears with 'sorry'' and 'thank you'' notes. Chandrasekaran is reportedly doing a lot of heavy-lifting himself after the crash, a lot of which is on the communication front, both internal and external.
But it's not about Air India alone. The many instances of plane diversions, emergency landings and narrow escapes in Indian aviation over the past month are almost unprecedented. Whatever the reasons — faulty rostering, fearful pilots or technical glitches — it's time for the regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), to prioritise air safety over everything else. Rather than taking knee-jerk decisions after a major accident, safety of fliers and a smooth aviation system in India should be its top agenda. Equally, making effective communication a part of the drill in times of crisis may not be a bad idea.
As experts have observed, the aviation sector is growing by leaps and bounds. Domestic air passenger traffic grew from around 67 million in 2014 to 161 million in 2024, according to data from the regulator. Against this backdrop, trained and experienced human resource — including pilots and engineers —is not keeping pace with the requirement. While refraining from commenting on the Air crash, aviation experts have been raising the bigger and critical issue of regulatory oversight, which needs to improve significantly.
The latest air crash, followed by a series of aviation incidents, may be a wake-up call for India to have an autonomous body like the UK Civil Aviation Authority created by an Act of Parliament. In that case, the civil aviation ministry would have to take a back seat.
Nivedita Mookerji @nivmook is the Executive Editor of Business Standard. Views are personal.