Former AAIB chief Aurobindo Handa said on Sunday (July 13, 2025) that last month, it would be too early to conclude the role of the pilot based on the initial investigation report related to the crash of Air India (AI) aircraft in Ahmedabad. He said that in the final report, the most possible cause of the accident would be known.
A day after the Air India Bureau of Investigation Bureau (AAIB) issued a preliminary report related to the investigation of the Air India aircraft accident, Handa said, “We should allow AAIB to complete the investigation in a fair, biasless and transparent manner.”
Investigation of over 100 aircraft accidents
Handa has investigated more than 100 aircraft accidents including Air India Express aircraft accident in Kozhikode in 2020. He said in a conversation with ‘PTI’, “AAIB has done a good job. Moving forward, they will now focus on finding out why and how these fuel switches move and whether there can be any mechanical or electrical malfunction. ‘
The preliminary inquiry report released on Saturday (July 12, 2025) stated that the fuel switches of the engine ‘Boeing 787-8’ aircraft were closed in an interval of one second and later turned on. In the voice recording of the cockpit, one pilot is heard asking the other why he closed the switch and the other pilot says that he did not do so.
Investigation report will have to wait
The report did not mention which pilot asked the question and which pilot replied. The flying command was near the co-pilot and the ‘Pilot in Command’ (PIC) was monitoring the pilot during the flight.
Handa said, ‘To reach a conclusion based on AAIB’s initial investigation report on Air India flight number 171, including the role of one pilot, will be hurry. We should allow AAIB to complete the investigation in a fair, biasless and transparent manner.
These pilots were commanded by the aircraft
The Pilot in Command (PIC) was 56-year-old Captain Sumit Sabharwal and the ‘First Officer’ as a co-pilot was 32-year-old Clive Kunder. Sabharwal’s flight experience with Boeing 787 was more than 8,596 hours, including 8,260 hours as PIC.
Similarly, Kunder had a flying experience of 1,128 hours with such aircraft. During the flight, the aircraft was commanded by Kunder, while Sabharwal was monitoring the pilot during this flight, which was operated from the Boeing 787-8 aircraft nearly 12 years old.
Some foreign media are telling the mistake of the pilot
According to the preliminary report, both the pilots took enough rest before flying. Handa said, ‘In some places, especially in foreign media, an attempt is being made to indicate that the fault of one pilot can be. Once again, I would like to request my experienced people of the aviation sector to avoid any kind of speculation.
The 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 aircraft left from Ahmedabad to London collided with a building soon after flying on June 12 and 260 people died. Only one of the 242 people aboard the aircraft survived.
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