New Delhi: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has submitted its preliminary report on the tragic crash of Air India flight AI171 to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other relevant bodies, officials confirmed.
The initial findings, drawn from early-stage assessments, are likely to be made public later this week, according to senior government sources cited by NDTV.
The London-bound flight, which took off from Ahmedabad on June 12, crashed within moments of departure, slamming into a medical college hostel building.
The disaster claimed the lives of all 241 people on board and 19 individuals on the ground. Remarkably, one passenger survived the fatal accident.
A team from AAIB began investigating immediately after the crash, which took place just seconds after take-off.
Both sets of the aircraft’s black boxes — comprising the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) — were recovered from the debris.
The first was found on June 13, and the second on June 16. The aircraft model was equipped with dual black box systems.
The investigation is being led by AAIB officials and includes experts from the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency representing the country where the aircraft was manufactured.
Boeing and engine-maker General Electric (GE) have also been actively involved in the technical analysis.
Investigators are examining multiple factors, including the possibility of a dual-engine failure, as part of their analysis.
The investigation also includes inputs from aviation medicine professionals and Air Traffic Control (ATC) officers.
The NTSB team is working in close coordination with Indian officials at the newly operational AAIB Laboratory in Delhi.
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Until recently, India lacked the infrastructure to analyse black box data domestically, often relying on facilities in countries like the US, UK, France, and Canada.
The Delhi-based AAIB Lab now enables on-site decoding of flight data and cockpit recordings, marking a significant upgrade in India’s aviation accident response capabilities.
The full investigation is expected to take several months, but the preliminary report will help establish the broad contours of what led to one of the worst aviation disasters in recent Indian history.
