Probe into aircraft crash needs to be beyond suspicion

THE GOAN NETWORK | JULY 13, 2025, 11:46 PM IST

The much-awaited interim report into what might have caused Air India’s Ahmedabad-London AI171 aircraft to lose altitude and crash shortly after takeoff at Ahmedabad killing all but one of the passengers on board and additionally around 20 people on the ground, was released late last week at midnight on Friday. The report was released in the final minutes of the very last day of the ICAO-mandated 30-day limit to make an initial investigation report public.

As expected, the report does not conclude as to why the plane crashed and does not provide an answer to precisely one question -- the question of what caused the plane to crash. What the report says, in essence, is that, within seconds of take off, fuel supply to both the engines was cut off which caused the engines to power down, the plane to lose altitude and even though the switches were moved back to the ‘run’ position with a gap of nearly ten seconds the aeroplane failed to regain power and ultimately crashed seconds later.

The report goes on to disclose that the cockpit voice recorder records one pilot asking the other why he turned off the fuel to which the other responds that he did not.

The preliminary report is, of course, not the whole story. There are many aspects that have been kept out. For one, the preliminary report has left out the identities of the pilots who asked why the other one turned the switches to the cut-off position, and the pilot who responded in the negative. This is for obvious reasons. Were the identities to be revealed it would in all probability lead to a witch hunt against the family of the seemingly guilty pilot.

But more than that, the interim report has also stopped short of releasing the full transcript including direct quotes of what was said during the plane’s final seconds. There probably is a good reason for that too, but the absence of any reasoning being offered has sparked a host of theories suggesting that the report is trying to hide more than it wants to reveal.

In effect, the report suggests that either of the two pilots, either deliberately or accidentally turned off the fuel supply to the engine, which ultimately was the reason why the plane crashed, despite subsequent efforts to restart the engine. The report, in answering one question, has raised several others. Questions to which we might never get answers. And then there are questions like, could the switches have flipped accidentally or on their own on account of a faulty mechanism or could the internal software have misread the signal?

At the moment we can only speculate. However, given that it is extremely unlikely for even one, let alone both switches to malfunction and that too within one second of each other, combined with the fact that within ten seconds they were both returned to the run position, commands which were received by the engines in an attempt to continue flying the aircraft, attention has moved to the role of one of the two pilots in bringing the plane down.

We mustn't try to conflate the issue or begin assigning blame to the families of the two pilots who are still coming to terms with the loss. The release of the interim report, with its many unanswered questions, has undoubtedly only served to intensify scrutiny not only on the pilots in question but also on their families, relationships and those whom they knew.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Pilots Association, which has slammed theories that have suggested pilot suicide or pilot error and has accused the authors of the report of deliberately leaving out information that could exonerate the pilots. What’s not said, but implied is that the report is an attempt to save the aircraft manufacturer -- Boeing -- from liability for the accident, which, if made public could be potentially fatal for the company.

All we can do is hope -- for the sake of the reputation of the AAIB and of the country itself -- that not only is the investigation done professionally but also seen to be professional. It’s the least the families of those who have lost loved ones, the aviation community, and employees of Air India deserve and the flying community at large needs.

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