Addressing the employees of Air India, following the tragic crash of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad last week, Tata Sons and Air India chairman N Chandrasekaran made an emotional appeal for resilience, urging the airline’s staff to “stay the course” and commit to building a safer and stronger airline.
Speaking to nearly 700 employees and leadership team members at the Air India headquarters and training academy in Gurugram on Monday, Chandrasekaran acknowledged the deep pain caused by the June 12 crash that claimed over 270 lives. “I have seen a reasonable number of crises in my career, but this is the most heartbreaking one which I never thought I would see,” he said, recalling his visit to the crash site and the difficult moments shared with the emergency response team.
Amid the shock and grief, Chandrasekaran’s message to the Air India community was clear, that determination must guide the path forward. “Whatever I say and whatever we do is not going to bring the lives back. Those affected, they are going to feel the pain for a very long time. But having said that, we have got to do our very best humanly possible to help each of them,” he told the employees.
He said that the airline’s future depends on collective resilience and a re-dedication to safety. “We need to show resilience. We need to use this incident as an act of force to build a safer airline. So we have to make sure that we stay the course. Be more determined in everything we do. We need to wait for the investigation to find out.”
Addressing the complexity of the aviation industry, Chandrasekaran noted that aircraft systems are layered with “redundancies, checks and balances, certifications perfected over years”. Yet, he said, tragic failures like this still occur. “So we will figure out why it happens after the investigation,” he added.
He also recognised the emotional toll on the Air India workforce and called for unity and strength in the face of public scrutiny. “Criticisms are there… but it’s not easy to face criticisms when you genuinely care. If you feel distraught, the word you should remember is determination. We are going to get through this,” he said.
Visiting key operations areas including the Emergency Command Centre, the Integrated Operations Control Centre, and the Customer Service and Support unit, the chairman underscored the importance of every employee’s contribution. “What you do makes an airline. Big things get done by small actions. Just stay the course.”
Chandrasekaran said the airline must rise above the crisis to become the airline “this country deserves”.