Air India crash probe misses one-year deadline

Investigators are expected to miss Friday’s (Jun 12) one-year deadline to explain the cause of the Air India crash after an examination of the Boeing 787 aircraft’s engines in the United States remained unfinished, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

According to the report, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is likely to issue a status report this week explaining the reasons for the delay, citing people familiar with the matter.

India is expected to cite the need to complete the engine examination as the reason for not issuing a final report, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the information is not public.

The Air India Boeing 787, bound for London, crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Jun 12, 2025, killing 260 people in the world’s deadliest air disaster in a decade.

A preliminary report released last year found that the aircraft’s engine fuel control switches moved almost simultaneously from “RUN” to “CUTOFF”, cutting fuel supply to both engines shortly after take-off.

Bloomberg News reported that a final report is expected within three months, by which time studies of the GE Aerospace engines should be completed. The report added that the examination is being carried out in the United States because only a limited number of facilities worldwide have the required tools and capability to properly dismantle the engines.

Reuters first reported last month that Indian officials investigating the crash were preparing an interim report rather than a final report ahead of the first anniversary because the investigation was considered complex and time-consuming.

Under international rules, a final report should be issued within one year of an accident. However, investigations can take longer and, in such cases, an interim statement is required on each anniversary until the final report is completed.

The AAIB, India’s aviation ministry, Air India, the US National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing and GE Aerospace did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The crash came at a critical stage in Air India’s post-privatisation turnaround programme, which has been affected by supply-chain disruptions, the Iran war and Pakistan’s airspace ban on Indian carriers.

Pilot actions remain under scrutiny

A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots before the crash supported the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the aircraft’s engines, according to an early assessment by US officials reported by Reuters last year. At the time, the AAIB said it was “too early to reach any definite conclusions”.

The captain’s father later approached India’s top court seeking an independent investigation that would examine causes beyond deliberate pilot action. Deliberate pilot action has been suspected in some other fatal crashes and was confirmed in the case of Germanwings in 2015.

The Federation of Indian Pilots wrote to India’s civil aviation minister, aviation regulator and the prime minister’s office on Jun 5 requesting that an interim report not be released, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The pilots’ body also urged investigators to obtain additional technical data from Boeing and Air India to enable a “rebuttal of the pilot suicide theory being explored by the AAIB”.

The preliminary report did not include any safety recommendations for Boeing or GE Aerospace, indicating that no technical issues had been identified at that stage of the investigation.

The crash was the first involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft entered commercial service in 2011.

(With inputs from Reuters)