Air India crash: Preliminary report into crash which killed 260 released
4 hours ago
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Live Reporting
Edited by Jenna Moon in London, produced by Vikas Pandey & Geeta Pandey in Delhi
The terrifying moment plane crashed into a canteenpublished at 08:52 British Summer Time
08:52 BST
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Plates with food seen at the dining hall of the BJ Medical College after the crash
On the afternoon on 12 June, the dining hall at the residential hostel of BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad was teeming with students getting lunch.
The room buzzed with the sound of jokes, banter between friends and the odd bit of academic discussion.
By 13:39 local time, there were at least 35 people in the cafeteria. Some had already collected their food and were lounging around, while others were in the queue waiting for their turn.
In seconds, everything changed.
The general hum of the canteen was pierced by the sound of approaching jet engines - and the room exploded.
We now know that 19 people died on the ground after the Air India flight crashed into a busy neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, seconds after taking off.
In the aftermath of the crash, the BBC spoke to eywitnesses to piece together what happened in those terrifying few seconds - you can read it here.
Fuel switches cannot be easily turned off - aerospace professorpublished at 08:42 British Summer Time
08:42 BST
Perhaps the most crucial thing to emerge from the preliminary report is that the plane's fuel switches were cut off shortly before the crash.
"It's a really important switch and therefore it's one that's protected against somebody just brushing against it," explains Graham Braithwaite, director of Aerospace and Aviation at Cranfield University.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he says in order for a pilot to move the switch, "they've got to lift it and move very positively the position".
He points out the report does not say a pilot moved the switch, and at this stage "you would expect the report to keep an open mind".
On wider danger to passengers, he says the area of focus in this investigation is "very specifically on this flight, on this particular aircraft on this day".
"The 787 had flown a billion passengers safely prior to this flight" and it has a good record, Braithwaite adds.
Prayer service remembers the 12 crew lost in crashpublished at 08:28 British Summer Time
08:28 BST
As reactions continue to come in following the release of the preliminary report, a prayer service has been held in Mumbai, where both pilots were based.
The church, where the service was held in honour of the 12 crew lost in the crash, was packed full of people paying their respects.
The father of First Officer Clive Kunder was in attendance, according to Reuters, which reported "emotional scenes played out among grieving relatives".
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
How many people died in the crash?published at 08:17 British Summer Time
08:17 BST
Earlier reports, including from the BBC, reported the death toll as 270, based on figures from officials at the crash site and doctors at the hospitals where the injured were being treated.
But days after the crash, Gujarat government officials revised the number, saying that 260 people were killed.
This figure includes 241 of the 242 passengers on board the flight and 19 casualties on the ground. The plane crashed into the canteen a doctors' hostel in Ahmedabad, where student doctors were getting lunch.
'I walked out of rubble': Sole survivor on how he escaped wreckagepublished at 08:06 British Summer Time
Speaking to Indian state media the day after the crash,
Vishwashkumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A, said the lights inside the aircraft
"started flickering" moments after take off.
He said within five-to-10 seconds, it felt like the plane was
"stuck in the air".
"The lights started flickering green and
white... suddenly slammed into a building and exploded. I still can't believe how I survived. I walked out of the
rubble."
A shadow on Air India's ambitious turnaround planspublished at 07:51 British Summer Time
07:51 BST
Nikhil Inamdar and Archana Shukla BBC News
The narrative was just beginning to change for Air India in the lead-up to the tragedy.
In the hands of a new private owner - the Tata Group bought the airline from the government in 2022 - Air India showed an operating profit, better revenues and fewer customer complaints.
Although disgruntlement about poor service standards, dysfunctional in-house entertainment and flight delays hadn't entirely gone away, there was an understanding that these were niggling transition troubles as the airline undertook multiple complex mergers to streamline its operations.
The cosmetic improvements were beginning to show too; slick new livery and retrofitted interiors on some aircraft, brand-new A-350s in the fleet deployed on key routes and a record-breaking order for new planes to retire old ones to service India's booming aviation market.
After years of neglect when Air India was under state ownership, the Tatas said earlier this year that they'd embarked on the "final climb phrase" of the carrier's transformation journey towards becoming a "world-class" airline.
'Justice should be served to the victims'published at 07:34 British Summer Time
07:34 BST
Laxmi Patel BBC Gujarati
Image source, Ayushi Christian
Image caption,
Ayushi and Lawrence Christian
Ayushi Christian, wife of Lawrence Christian, who was among the crash victims, says she wants justice to be served to those who lost their lives.
The couple married in 2023 and had migrated to the UK 18 months ago.
Lawrence had visited India to perform the last rites of his father and was returning to UK on the AI 171 flight.
"It has been one month since the crash, but no action has been taken by the government so far. [The] preliminary investigation report has come out today. Action should be taken against those responsible for the incident," Ayushi says.
A 'trivial' switch flip killed so many, says colleague of doctor who died with familypublished at 07:15 British Summer Time
07:15 BST
Image source, Supplied
Image caption,
Dr Joshi's colleague remembers him as "always easygoing, very calm"and professional
Dr Mario Donadi was a friend of Dr Prateek Joshi, who was travelling on the Air India flight back to the UK with his family.
Joshi took a picture of himself, his wife and their three kids on the plane and posted it just before take-off.
Donadi tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the report is a "huge slap in the face" after the loss of a "dear colleague of mine".
"How [can] something so trivial [as] a simple switch being deactivated lead to such a loss of life, of such huge dreams?" he asked.
Joshi "was always easy-going, very calm" and professional, Donadi says.
Donadi explains that Joshi was on his way to "fulfil the dream of his life" by moving to the UK with his family. The consultant radiologist had been working there for a few years, and had recently secured a way to bring his wife and their children over to join him.
"Everything shattered like that," Donadi says.
Who were the victims of the deadly plane crash?published at 06:55 British Summer Time
06:55 BST
Image source, Supplied
Image caption,
Prateek Joshi had shared a photo of his family in the plane before it departed
All but one of the 241 passengers on board the London-bound Air India flight died in the crash. The victims also included people who were in and around the buildings the plane crashed into.
Among them are:
Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, a married British couple, ran a spiritual wellness centre in London. A day before their flight, they posted a video on Instagram showing them laughing and joking about their trip to India.
Among the victims was also Prateek Joshi, a consultant radiologist from Derby, his wife and three young children. He had shared a photo of all of them seated in the plane just before it departed.
Raxa Modha, and her two-year-old grandson, Rudra, were believed to have been flying back to England for a memorial service for Modha's late husband, Kishor, who died in April from cancer.
The two pilots, First Officer Clive Kundar and Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, also lost their lives. Kundar had 3,403 total flying hours, with 1,128 on the Dreamliner. Sabharwal was a veteran with 15,638 hour of flying experience, including 8,596 on the Boeing 787.
A former nursery school headteacher and Ofsted inspector Panna Nagar also died in the crash.
Watch: Investigation may lead to answers, but no closure for grieving familiespublished at 06:36 British Summer Time
06:36 BST
Media caption,
Investigation may lead to answers, but not closure to grieving families
The preliminary report provides some insight into what caused the crash. But while experts analyse its findings, the report has provided little comfort to the families who lost their loved ones.
The BBC's Samira Hussain met Shweta Parihar, whose husband died in the crash. "We trusted the airline. What is the point of the investigation now?” she asks.
Why audio from the cockpit deepens crash mysterypublished at 06:19 British Summer Time
06:19 BST
Soutik Biswas India Correspondent
We now know that just seconds after take-off, both the 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner's fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss. Switching to "cut-off" is a move typically done only after landing.
Investigators say the lever-lock fuel switches are designed to prevent accidental activation - they must be pulled up to unlock before flipping, a safety feature dating back to the 1950s. Built to exacting standards, they're highly reliable. Protective guard brackets further shield them from accidental bumps.
"It would be almost impossible to pull both switches with a single movement of one hand, and this makes accidental deployment unlikely," a Canada-based air accidents investigator, who wanted to remain unnamed, told the BBC.
That's what makes the Air India case stand out.
I spoke to several experts from around the world to understand what the report tells us about the crash - and what it doesn't.
What we know so farpublished at 06:03 British Summer Time
06:03 BST
As we've been reporting, the preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash has been released.
If you are just joining us, here's what we know so far:
The report says both engines of the plane lost thrust after the two fuel control switches were moved from the run to the cut-off position shortly after take-off
In the cockpit voice recordings, one pilot is heard asking the other “why did you do the cut-off?” - the other says he didn't move them
Further investigations are ongoing and a final report is expected within a year, the preliminary report says
The report does not draw any conclusions and has thrown up new questions about the fuel control switches and what caused them to change position
Family members of victims say the reason for the crash will not take away from their grief. "We are still wading through our feelings at this point, trying to make sense of our loss," the cousin of a crew member tells the BBC
What happens next?published at 05:44 British Summer Time
05:44 BST
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) lays out in its report what the next steps are following this preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash.
These include:
Examining further "components of interest" that have been identified
Testing very limited samples of fuel retrieved from parts of the plane at a suitable facility
Analysing data from two of the inflight recorders in detail
Undertaking a complete analysis of post-mortem reports of the crew and the passengers
The investigation is ongoing and a final report is expected within a year.
Crash impact: What happened on the groundpublished at 05:24 British Summer Time
05:24 BST
Soutik Biswas India Correspondent
The Air India 787 was destroyed after crashing into multiple buildings outside the airport in Ahmedabad after take-off in June.
Here's what the preliminary report reveals:
The aircraft hit the BJ Medical College hostel, about 0.9 nautical miles from the runway
It clipped trees and a chimney, then crashed into a building with a slight nose-up
Five buildings were damaged in total, with major structural and fire damage. Wreckage was scattered across a 1000ft x 400ft area
The debris pattern shows the aircraft broke apart as it tore through structures - giving investigators some clues about its final moments
Image source, Getty Images
'Knowing the reason would not change the way we grieve' - crew member's cousinpublished at 04:58 British Summer Time
04:58 BST
Ishadrita Lahiri BBC Hindi
Image source, Lamnunthem Singson's family
Image caption,
Lamnunthem Singson, an Air India crew member, was among the 260 people killed in the crash
Family members of the crash victims are continuing to grapple with what the release of the preliminary investigation means to them.
The cousin of Lamnunthem Singson, a crew member killed in the crash, says he is not sure if knowing the reason for the crash will change the way they are grieving.
"We are still wading through our own feelings at this point, trying to make sense of our loss," says Ngamlienlal Kipgen.
"I believe closure comes from saying our goodbyes in our own way and living in a way that honours and celebrates them. Her story will live on through us and the many loved ones she left behind," he adds.
Who were the plane's two pilots?published at 04:44 British Summer Time
04:44 BST
Soutik Biswas India Correspondent
The preliminary report has brought fresh attention to the two pilots in control of the ill-fated Air India flight.
Just seconds after take-off, cockpit audio captured one pilot asking the other, “Why did you do the cut-off?”- referring to the fuel switch that starved the engines. The other replied, “I didn’t.” It's still unclear who asked the question - and who answered.
Here’s what we know about the crew.
Capt Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was a veteran with 30 years of experience at Air India. He had logged 15,638 flying hours, including 8,596 on the Boeing 787. Based in Mumbai, he lived with his elderly father and was looking forward to retirement.
First Officer Clive Kunder, 32, had 3,403 total flying hours, with 1,128 on the Dreamliner. He joined Air India in 2017 and had dreamed of flying since school.
Both were based in Mumbai and had arrived in Ahmedabad the day before the flight, with adequate rest, the report says. Kunder was the pilot flying, while Sabharwal was the pilot monitoring, it says.
The crew had passed pre-flight breathalyser tests and were seen at the gate on CCTV before they took off, the report adds.
Watch: The heart-breaking scenes at hospital following June's crashpublished at 04:29 British Summer Time
04:29 BST
Most of the families of those killed in June's crash had to wait for days to get the bodies of their loved ones.
Medical teams worked arduously to match DNA samples to identify victims.
The civil hospital in the city witnessed heart-breaking scenes for several days after the crash.
Media caption,
Heartbreaking scenes as families of passengers camp out at hospital
'Our thoughts are with the loved ones of victims' - Boeingpublished at 04:23 British Summer Time
04:23 BST
In a statement following the release of the report, Boeing - the maker of the Dreamliner that crashed in June - has released a statement saying "our thoughts remain with the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected on the ground in Ahmedabad."
The US aviation giant adds that it continues to "defer" to India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau - which is leading the investigation - to provide information about the crashed plane in line with international protocol.
Crash site a month on desertedpublished at 04:21 British Summer Time
04:21 BST
Roxy Gagdekar BBC Gujarati, Ahmedabad
Image source, Pavan Jaishwal/BBC
A month after the incident, the Air India crash site in Ahmedabad, western India, remains deserted.
The road passing through the area has been closed to commercial activity since the day of the crash.
A police checkpoint has come up nearby and no-one is allowed to enter the site.
Even after a month, scorched trees and damaged buildings stand witness to the devastation caused by the deadly accident.
Watch: Parts of plane seen crashed into buildingpublished at 04:12 British Summer Time
04:12 BST
The Air India plane crashed into a densely-populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad in June, killing 260 people.
Footage taken shortly after the crash shows debris from the plane sticking out of buildings.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Ayushi Christian
Image source, Supplied
Image source, Supplied
Soutik Biswas
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Lamnunthem Singson's family
Image source, Pavan Jaishwal/BBC
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