In June 2025, we saw an Air India Boeing 787-8 crash shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad (AMD), killing 260 people. It was a bizarre accident, as the plane lost power to both engines shortly after takeoff, and the preliminary report suggested that fuel control switches were shut off seconds after takeoff, which suggests a chilling cause to the accident.
It has now been months since the public has received any sort of a meaningful update as to what happened, and at least publicly, it feels like the investigation is stalled. That brings us to some interesting new details about what’s happening in the background of the investigation.
US & Indian authorities aren’t on same page about investigation
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about what has been going on in the background of the Air India flight AI171 crash investigation. As you’d expect, the investigation is being led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). However, the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also involved in the investigation and is providing support, since the aircraft was manufactured in the United States.
We knew that there had been disagreements between the AAIB and NTSB, though we’re now learning details about just how bad they were. It would appear that investigators in the United States fear that investigators in India are trying to cover-up the cause of this accident, ignoring evidence.
As it currently stands, the NTSB reportedly believes that evidence points to the captain having shut off the engines and having made no effort to rescue the plane, with the fear being that the Indian government will seek to obstruct findings and instead blame mechanical faults with the plane. After all, earlier this month, an Indian supreme court judge ruled that the captain can’t be blamed for the crash, dismissing “nasty” reports that he turned off the plane’s engines.
According to the WSJ report, here’s what happened early in the investigation:
- The head of the AAIB is said to have told NTSB officials that they were “not a third world country” and “can do anything you all can do”
- American investigators were banned from taking photos of the wreckage, some of which was moved before they could examine it
- Indian officials wanted to analyze the black box data in the small town of Korwa, to stay away from media attention; however, the NTSB insisted that they do this in New Delhi or Washington, over concerns of terrorism in the region
- US State Department officials had to intercept NTSB investigators at the airport in Delhi, to prevent them from boarding a military flight to Korwa arranged by the Indian government, and then gave India an ultimatum about where to analyze the data, or else US support for the investigation would end
- The AAIB insisted on conducting some aspects of the investigation sequentially, greatly slowing things down, while the NTSB wanted a broader and faster review, to determine if there was an issue with the 787 that would require the plane to be grounded
It’s dismaying to see how this investigation is being handled
Ultimately the work that aircraft accident investigators do is what makes our aviation ecosystem as safe as it is. It’s incredibly important that investigations are performed impartially, and that we learn from every accident, to do everything possible to prevent a similar thing from happening in the future.
There’s no denying that the NTSB has a phenomenal track record with performing impartial investigations into accidents. Of course in this case, the NTSB is simply providing support to the AAIB, which is (understandably) leading the investigation.
The AAIB has definitely been lacking when it comes to transparency with its investigation, and what has been communicated with the public. For that matter, based on what we know, this investigation has been performed at a very slow pace.
The thing is, it increasingly feels like this is becoming political theater, more than an actual investigation, with India’s supreme court getting involved, at the request of the father of the captain and unions representing pilots.
So far, only very limited information has been shared about what was heard on the cockpit voice recorder. We know that just seconds after takeoff, the fuel cutoff switches were turned off, one after the other, with a gap of just one second. The first officer was heard asking the captain why he cut off the engines, to which the captain responded that he didn’t do so. The first officer tried to pull up on the nose, while the captain didn’t.
On the Indian side, the claim seems to be that there was some sort of an unheard of mechanical issue that caused fuel to be shut off without the pilots manually doing it. One detail that hasn’t been released — which seems like it would be pretty conclusive — is if the sound of the fuel cutoff switches being moved was heard on the cockpit voice recorder. Moving the switches makes quite a loud noise, and this would certainly have been heard on the cockpit voice recorder.
If the sound of the switches moving was heard, then I don’t understand how anyone can claim that it wasn’t one of the pilots who shut off the engines. If it wasn’t heard, then that’s a major detail that would exonerate the pilots.
Bottom line
The investigation into the crash of Air India flight AI171 has certainly left the public confused, given the lack of updates, plus the involvement of Indian courts in deciding what investigators can and can’t say.
A new report suggests that there have been quite some tensions between US and Indian authorities. According to the report, US investigators seem confident that the captain intentionally sabotaged the aircraft, while Indian investigators believe it was something else.
It’s really unfortunate to see the direction this investigation is taking. I hope this investigation doesn’t end up taking the same direction as EgyptAir 990…
What do you make of the investigation of the crash of AI171?
