Ahmedabad plane crash: Emotional effect real, support available for you; Air India tells its pilots after AAIB's preliminary report
The airline's head of flight operations, Captain Manish Uppal, wrote to its pilots on Saturday after Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released the preliminary report of the investigation into the crash of AI-171, saying: "The initial report gives us an initial insight.
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This is not the last word, but a beginning - an important step in identifying factors and ensuring that all possible measures are taken to prevent such a tragedy from re-occurring... urge you read the attached report carefully and with a professional lens. If you have questions, please discuss with (us)... committed to maintain open communication and provide clarity, wherever possible."
The crash has had a devastating psychological impact on the aviation community, especially Air India crew members.
"The emotional effect of such an event is real, and it is okay to feel a series of emotions (like) sorrow and even anger... support resources are available to you through a peer support programme and company psychologists. As pilots, we are trained to stay under pressure; to continuously learn and to act decisively when it matters most.
Let us apply the same now. Together, we will reflect, react and rise more than before," Uppal wrote.
Meanwhile, after the report was made public, AI said in a statement that it "stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI-171 tragedy. We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing support during this difficult time."
"We acknowledge receipt of the preliminary report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on July 12, 2025. Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses. Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB," Air India said.
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Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Air India CEO says investigation into Ahmedabad crash raises new questions
By Aditya Kalra and Chandini Monnappa Air India CEO says investigation into Ahmedabad crash raises new questions NEW DELHI -A preliminary investigation into the crash of an Air India passenger jet last month that killed 260 people raises additional questions about the incident and the investigation is far from over, Air India's CEO said in a memo on Monday. The preliminary investigation released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on Saturday depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before the crash of the Boeing Dreamliner. In a staff memo reviewed by Reuters, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the report had "triggered a new round of speculation in the media ... Unsurprisingly, it provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions." He added: "The preliminary report identified no cause nor made any recommendations, so I urge everyone to avoid drawing premature conclusions as the investigation is far from over." The memo said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London from the Indian city of Ahmedabad began to lose thrust and sink shortly after takeoff. All but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground were killed. According to the AAIB report, in the flight's final moments one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel. "The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report said. It added that the plane's engine two fuel cutoff switches flipped almost simultaneously, but did not say how. The preliminary report suggested no immediate action for Boeing or GE, whose engines were fitted on the aircraft. ALPA India, which represents Indian pilots at the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, has rejected any presumption of pilot error and called for a "fair, fact-based inquiry". "The pilots had passed their mandatory pre-flight breathalyser and there were no observations pertaining to their medical status," Campbell said in his memo. The commanding pilot of the Air India plane was Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, who had a total flying experience of 15,638 hours and, according to the Indian government, was also an Air India instructor. His co-pilot was Clive Kunder, 32, who had 3,403 hours of total experience. Air India has come under heightened scrutiny on multiple fronts following the crash. On July 4, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it would investigate budget unit Air India Express, after a Reuters report revealed the airline failed to promptly replace engine parts on an Airbus A320 as mandated, and falsified records to indicate compliance. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Scroll.in
3 hours ago
- Scroll.in
Ahmedabad crash report found ‘no mechanical or maintenance issues' with aircraft: Air India CEO
The preliminary report released on Saturday by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on the Ahmedabad plane crash did not find any mechanical or maintenance issues with the Boeing aircraft or its engines, The Hindu quoted Air India Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson as saying. In an internal communication to Air India employees, Wilson said that every Boeing 787 aircraft in the airline's fleet was checked within days of the June 12 crash and all were found fit for service. 'We continue to perform all necessary checks, as we will any new ones that authorities may suggest,' the newspaper quoted him as saying. The plane crash on June 12 killed at least 275 persons and was said to be the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. In its preliminary report released on Saturday, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that moments after the aircraft took off, its fuel control switches transitioned from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' within a second of each other, because of which both engines shut down. The report said that one of the pilots could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he shut down the fuel, in response to which the other pilot said that he did not. After a gap of about 10 seconds, the switches went back to the 'RUN' position, in what appeared to be an attempt by the pilots to regain thrust in the engines. Subsequently, one of the engines progressed to recovery and deceleration stopped. But deceleration could not be stopped on the second engine. The flight lasted for about 30 seconds from the lift-off to the crash, said the report. In the internal communication, Wilson said that the report 'provided both greater clarity' and 'opened additional questions'. He also advised employees not to focus on the 'ongoing cycle of theories, allegations, rumours and sensational headlines'. 'I urge everyone to avoid drawing premature conclusions as the investigation is far from over,' he said. He assured that the airline would cooperate with the investigation process to ensure a 'thorough and comprehensive enquiry', The Indian Express reported. Wilson added that there was 'no issue with the quality of fuel and no abnormality with the take-off roll' and that the 'pilots had passed their mandatory pre-flight breathalyser and there were no observations pertaining to their medical status'. Air India's top priorities continue to be 'standing by the bereaved and those injured, working together as a team, and delivering a safe and reliable air travel experience to our customers around the world', he said. On June 12, Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which was en route to London's Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad, crashed just 33 seconds after taking off. There were 242 people aboard the aircraft. One passenger survived with ' impact injuries '. Thirty-four persons were also killed on the ground after the plane crashed into the hostel building of the BJ Medical College and Hospital in Ahmedabad, according to Air India. DGCA orders fuel switches checks The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday directed all domestic airlines operating Boeing aircraft to inspect key fuel control switch mechanisms on their fleets by July 21, CNBC-TV 18 reported. 'Strict adherence to the timeline is essential to ensure continued airworthiness and safety of operations,' the order added. The aviation watchdog's order cited a 2018 United States Federal Aviation Administration advisory that warned of a fuel switch malfunction on certain aircraft manufactured by Boeing. DGCA orders all airline operators to carry out inspection of the fuel control switch for disengagement of lock no later than 21st July 2025. This is as per the FAA order of December 2018. For 737s, 787s and others — Jagriti Chandra (@jagritichandra) July 14, 2025 On Saturday, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways had also ordered its pilots to ' exercise caution ' while operating the fuel control switches on Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet, while also ordering an inspection of their locking mechanism, The Hindu reported. The directive had advised pilots to ensure that no objects were placed on the pedestal that could cause any inadvertent movement.
India Today
4 hours ago
- India Today
The worry lines in Air India Flight AI171 crash preliminary report
A caution flag was raised quietly, six and a half years before Air India Flight AI171 last month plummeted from the Ahmedabad sky in one of the world's worst aviation tragedies. Back in December 2018, engineers at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had circulated an advisory about a component most pilots rarely worry about: the small, spring-loaded latches designed to lock the engine fuel-control levers firmly in the 'RUN' position on certain Boeing wide-body FAA's concern was specific and chilling: under some circumstances, the latch might disengage silently. Should the mechanism fail, even the normal frenzy of cockpit operations could work the lever backward, shutting off life-sustaining fuel supply to the plane's engines. The bulletin advised inspections, but significantly, did not made them mandatory. It was an advisory, a whisper in the cacophony of global aviation maintenance regulations. That whisper would go on to reverberate loud this June Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight to London was being helmed by the late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. According to the 15-page preliminary report on how the plane crashed, Sabharwal, 56, an Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) holder, had some 15,638 hours of flying experience, including 8,596 hours on the Dreamliner. With him was the late First Officer Clive Kunder, holder of a commercial pilot licence and 3,403 hours of flight experience, of which 1,128 hours were on Boeing the pilot community, it's disbelief that the pair's skill-set and experience on paper would allow them to accidentally bump the fuel-control switch—a critical part of the instrument panel—mid take-off. The plane, which had done over 41,800 hours since delivery in 2013, was fully certified for air worthiness; the last such approval had come just three weeks before the crash. 'The Boeing Company received reports from operators of Model 737 airplanes that the fuel-control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged,' states the 2018 FAA advisory, detailing: 'The fuel-control switch has a locking feature to prevent inadvertent operation that could result in unintended switch movement between the fuel supply and fuel cut-off positions. In order to move the switch from one position to the other, under the condition where the locking feature is engaged, it is necessary for the pilot to lift the switch up while transitioning the switch position. If the locking feature is disengaged, the switch can be moved between the two positions without lifting the switch during transition, and the switch would be exposed to the potential of inadvertent operation. Inadvertent operation of the switch could result in an unintended consequence, such as an in-flight engine shutdown.'In the case of Flight AI171, the sequence captured by the aircraft's digital flight data recorder (DFDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) is tragically brief. At 08:08:35 UTC (Universal Time Coordinated)—that is around 1:38 pm IST (Indian Standard Time)—the Dreamliner rotated at 155 knots. Four seconds later, it was airborne. Then, within the span of a single heartbeat—one second—both engine fuel cut-off switches abruptly transitioned from 'RUN' to 'CUT-OFF'. Engine parameters immediately began to CVR preserves the stunned disbelief in the cockpit. Captain Sabharwal's voice, sharp with alarm: 'Why have the engines shut down?' To which First Officer Kunder's response that 'I did not do it'. During examination of the wreckage, both thrust levers were found near idle position while the Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR) data shows they remained forward—at take-off thrust—until impact. It also notes that both fuel-control switches were found in 'RUN' followed midair on Flight AI171 was a desperate, 30-second battle against physics. The aircraft's Ram Air Turbine (RAT) deployed automatically, a small propeller dropping into the airstream to generate minimal hydraulic and electrical power. The auxiliary power unit inlet door opened as its auto-start sequence engaged. Engine 1 managed to relight, its core speed clawing back upward. But Engine 2 stubbornly refused, its core speed continuing to plummet despite repeated automated fuel-flow insufficient thrust and altitude, the jetliner became a gliding tomb. At 08:09:05 UTC (1:39 pm IST), a terse 'Mayday' call crackled over the Air Traffic Control radio. Seconds later, Flight AI171, still heavy with fuel, slammed into a densely packed residential suburb just beyond the Ahmedabad airport perimeter. The impact and ensuing fireball were wreckage, scattered over 300 meters, told a grim story: initial contact inside an Army Medical Corps compound, shearing through trees, obliterating the northeast wall of a hostel, carving a path of destruction through five residential blocks before the fuselage disintegrated. The vertical stabiliser lay 60 meters from the first impact point; engines and landing gear were embedded in roads and buildings. All 241 people on board were killed, besides 19 people on the the charred aftermath, teams of investigators from the government's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), with assistance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Boeing and engine-maker GE Aviation, descended upon the site. Drones captured the extent of the damage. Critical information emerged: the flap handle was set at five degrees; the landing gear lever was in down position, as it would be during take-off. Particularly, the mechanical control levers were found jammed in full forward supported the DFDR information, which indicated that full power had been activated down to the final milliseconds of the flight. Its throttle-control module had been replaced twice, once in 2019 and again in 2023, maintenance logs showed. However, there was no information in the logs about reported faults concerning the importantly, neither throttle-control module replacement prompted the specific inspections recommended in the 2018 FAA bulletin. Since the FAA action was not a mandatory airworthiness directive, compliance was left to the operator's discretion. 'We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses. Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB,' Air India has said in a preliminary report on the crash, adhering to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) principle of prioritising safety over blame, carefully avoids finger-pointing. It outlines the ongoing forensic work: detailed laboratory analysis of the recovered latches and switches; fuel samples and engine components; intense scrutiny of the 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio; simulations testing the latching mechanism's integrity under stress; studies of system behaviour during sudden, catastrophic thrust loss; and evaluations of the human-machine interface during critical phases such as the hundreds of families whose lives were forever altered by the deaths in air and on the ground, the lack of closure to the Flight AI171 crash is a bitter truth. But it will come, eventually. Aviation safety experts, however, say the real worth of this investigation will not be in punishment but one former pilot acknowledged: 'If a latch failure, and such an unannounced one at that, can kill both engines at the worst time, you had better understand why and how it happened.' Because every operator of these planes and every passenger boarding them deserves to to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
