Six months after an Air India plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood killing 241 people, the families of the victims are still awaiting unanswered questions and delays in promised compensation. The Air India Flight 171, headed for London’s Gatwick Airport with 230 passengers and 12 crew aboard, crashed just moments after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on June 12. Only one person survived.
But where does the investigation stand?
Officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will fly to the US next week to review data gathered on the deadly Air India flight crash in June with the National Transportation Safety Board, according to Bloomberg News report.
The Indian investigators plan to share findings, including any information gleaned from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The meeting, which will be held at the NTSB’s headquarters in Washington, will be attended by representatives from organisations involved in the investigation, including Boeing.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), in its preliminary report in July, had revealed that the fuel supply switches for both engines were almost simultaneously placed in the “off” position just after take-off.
The report said that both engine fuel cut-off switches “transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of one second”. This occurred as the aircraft hit its maximum speed of 180 knots during take-off, the report said.
Investigators have yet to explain why this happened, prompting theories ranging from pilot error to mechanical failure and electronic issues.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off (the fuel supply). The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report states. The report does not state whether who among the two who manned the plane – First Officer Clive Kunder or Captain Sumeet Sabharwal – made what remark.
The AAIB report also noted that an auxiliary power unit, intended to provide power to the aircraft in the event of engine failure, deployed automatically. Less than 10 seconds later, both switches were returned to the “on” position.
Immediately afterwards, “one of the two pilots” managed to transmit “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday”, before the plane crashed.
“Families deserve to know what happened,” says lawyer
US Aviation Attorney Mike Andrews, who is fighting the case in the US on behalf of the victims’ families, met them Vadodara and updated them on the progress of the case.
“Several of the families who are more technically advanced have echoed my sentiments and want to know what caused the RAT to deploy. They want to know what caused that. I feel the same way, that’s a very important clue. What would justice look like for these families, not just in the money, but the truth and the accountability. The transparency and accountability, I think, is a large aspect of working toward some sort of closure or moving forward. I think that, again, these families deserve the respect to know what happened, why it happened, and how it happened,” he told news agency ANI.
“I think the fact that the investigation is continuing, that they’re continuing to look at the data, I think that’s very, very encouraging, because what we’ve seen in prior incidents is early theories are sometimes, more often than not, disproven. And the more we are methodical and look at the data, follow the evidence to see where it takes us, the more accurate the ultimate finding is. And so, if anything, I would say that we need to follow the models of prior investigations to get the truth and not speculate,” he said.
The Aviation lawyer also said he is encouraged by the hearing in the case in the Supreme Court and agrees that it is improper to question the Pilot.
“In the United States, I filed a FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, request several months ago to the FAA for any information they may have. Our government (3:07) went through a shutdown period, and that was paused. We also are closely watching the work in the Supreme Court here of the pilot’s father and the petition that was filed. And we are very supportive, fully support that work and encouraged by comments that we’ve heard coming out of those hearings, that it’s improper to blame the pilot without further information. It’s important to focus on the data and to learn what’s there and to be careful and methodical,” he said.
On June 12, Air India flight AI171, crashed into a residential area shortly after it took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing 260 people, including 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground were killed in the .
The crash represents one of the deadliest aviation accidents in India in recent history.