Air India crash: Airline says one engine on plane was new as damaged black box to be sent to US for analysis
Indian aviation regulator finds no major safety flaws in Air India Dreamliners but flags maintenance and coordination issues
The Air India plane that crashed last week had one new engine installed in March this year, while the other was last serviced in 2023 and wasn’t due for maintenance until December, according to the airline’s chairperson N Chandrasekaran.
India will send the black box from the crashed Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner to the US for analysis after it sustained “heavy damage”, The Economic Times has reported, citing an internal source.
More than 200 victims of the 12 June crash have been identified through DNA testing, Indian authorities said yesterday.
Investigators probing the crash have found that the aircraft’s emergency power system was likely active just before impact.
The Wall Street Journal reported that this possibly suggested an engine or hydraulic failure during takeoff, a rare event in commercial aviation.
Air India is cutting its international wide body operations by 15 per cent for a few weeks due to safety inspections.
Families in India with concerns can call Air India on 1800 5691 444. Those outside India can call the British Foreign Office on 020 7008 5000.
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Investigators recover cockpit voice recorder from crashed Air India flight
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff outside Ahmedabad airport last week.
All but one passenger died after the London-bound Boeing 787 aircraft crashed into the campus of a medical college in Ahmedabad city on Thursday afternoon. Only one passenger among the 242 aboard survived.
At least 29 others on the ground, including five medical students inside the hostel, were also killed.
The CVR, which captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations along with the flight data recorder, will be key to determine the possible cause of one of the worst aviation disasters in decades. The flight data recorder was recovered from the crash site over the weekend.
Read more here from Alisha Rahaman Sarkar:
Investigators recover cockpit voice recorder from crashed Air India flight
What do investigators mean when they say that 'emergency power was likely active' before the crash?
On airplanes, there is a backup system called emergency power that turns on only if something goes seriously wrong.
In the case of Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad last week, people familiar with the probe told the Wall Street Journal that the emergency system was activated before the crash which meant that it is likely that both engines failed or that the plane lost some important systems that would have helped in giving it thrust.
Having the emergency power active means that something may have gone very wrong right after the takeoff.
It doesn’t, however, prove exactly what caused the crash, but it’s a big clue for the investigators.
British man's family in distress over lack of support from UK and India governments
The family of 25-year-old Faizan Rafik, a British man feared to be on the Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, is still awaiting official confirmation of his fate.
Despite providing DNA days ago, they’ve received no updates, leaving them in distress and without guidance, the BBC reported.
Rafik was returning to the UK after visiting his wife in Gujarat. His cousin has called for more support from UK authorities and expressed frustration at the lack of communication from both Indian and British officials.
Sameer Rafik, his cousin told the outlet that his family had been left “completely stuck” and that they “don’t know what to do”.
The crash killed 241 of 242 on board, including 53 Britons.
Mr Rafik said: “There’s no update on him, we don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”
“We are still hoping to hear some good news from India but unfortunately we aren’t getting any update from anywhere.“Faizan’s dad was asked to give DNA - it’s been more than four days now. We were supposed to have heard from the hospital by Monday but we haven't heard anything.
“We need to get some update about my brother. Was he there in the flight crash? If he wasn’t on the flight where is he? If he is on the flight then what’s the condition of the body?”
He added: “We haven’t had anything from the UK or India – it feels like he was the one paying tax to this country and the government doesn't bother about the person who has died.
“It feels very awful. He’s nothing to the government – just a piece of paper, feels like tearing it up and throwing it in the bin.
“We don’t know what to do because we’re completely blank. We need some kind of support from someone, we need a guide about what to do but we don’t have that at the moment.”
Boy who recorded viral Ahmedabad crash video ‘still not feeling like himself’
Aryan Asari, a 17-year-old airplane enthusiast, was filming from his father’s terrace in Ahmedabad when he witnessed and recorded the horrific Air India Dreamliner crash that killed 241 onboard and nearly 30 on the ground.
A lifelong fan of planes, Aryan was excited to see aircraft up close during his first visit to the city. But the trauma of watching the plane spiral and explode has left him deeply shaken.
“I saw the plane. It was going down and down. Then it wobbled and crashed right before my eyes,” he told the BBC.
His video became crucial to investigators and went viral.“My son is so scared that he has stopped using his phone,” his father, Maganbhai Asari, told the outlet.
Aryan is now trying to recover from the emotional impact, but his father fears he may never look at planes the same way again.
“This was Aryan’s first time in Ahmedabad. Actually, it was the first time in his life that he left the village,” Mr Asari said.
Retired army soldier Mr Asari now lives alone in a modest rooftop room near Ahmedabad airport, while his wife and two children remain in their ancestral village on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.
“Whenever I’d call, Aryan would ask if I could spot aeroplanes from our terrace and I would tell him you could see hundreds of them streaking the sky.”
The family had been swamped with interview requests after the viral video, and Aryan had a traumatic experience dealing with all that.
“My son was so disturbed by then that we decided to send him back to the village.”
Aryan has now resumed school but is “still not feeling like himself. His mother tells me that every time his phone rings, he gets scared”, Mr Asari said.
“I know he will be fine with time. But I don’t think my son will try looking for airplanes in the sky again.”
Why did the Air India flight crash? Here’s how experts will investigate the 30-second disaster
India orders nationwide airport emergency drills after devastating Air India crash
In a 13 June memo titled “Updating Airport Emergency Plan” and reviewed by Reuters, India’s aviation authorities instructed all government-managed airports to conduct a full-scale emergency training exercise on 30 June.
These drills, which simulate crisis scenarios such as crashes or large-scale evacuations, are a standard component of airport preparedness and safety protocols.
The directive came in the wake of the deadly Air India crash on 12 June in Ahmedabad, which claimed 241 lives onboard and killed several more on the ground.
‘Why me?’ Six extraordinary stories of sole plane crash survivors after British man walks away from India Air disaster
After Viswashkumar Ramesh somehow survived the Air India plane crash that killed everyone else on board, Alex Ross takes a look at other lone survivors and how it changed their lives forever:
The startling stories of six plane crash sole survivors after India Air tragedy
GoFundMe set up for two girls who lost their father in the crash
More than £600,000 has been raised for two young girls, aged eight and four, who were orphaned after their father, Arjun Patolia, died in the 12 June Air India crash.
Just 18 days earlier, their mother Bharti Patolia had passed away from cancer.
Patolia was returning from India after fulfilling her final wish: to scatter her ashes in a sacred river, when he died in the crash that killed 241 people.
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to support the two girls. It said: “Arjun left to bid farewell to his wife, never returned to the children they both raised. Now, these two beautiful young girls have been left without parents — their world turned upside down in just over two weeks.”
Crashed aircraft completed two flights before taking off for London Gatwick, regulator says
India’s aviation ministry confirmed that the Air India Boeing 787-8 that crashed on 12 June had completed two earlier flights, Paris to Delhi and Delhi to Ahmedabad, without issues before crashing shortly after takeoff en route to London, killing 241 of 242 on board and dozens on the ground.
The Indian aviation regulator said on Tuesday that Air India’s Dreamliner have no major safety flaws but flagged maintenance and coordination issues.
Aviation regulator said on Tuesday that since last week’s devastating crash, 66 Air India Dreamliner flights have been cancelled, including several international flights as well.
Boeing 787’s emergency-power system likely active before Air India crash - report
Investigators looking into the deadly crash of Air India Flight 171, which claimed over 270 lives, have found that the aircraft’s emergency power system was likely activated shortly before impact.
According to The Wall Street Journal, this could point to a possible engine or hydraulic failure during takeoff, an extremely rare but serious issue in commercial aviation.
However, investigators have not yet confirmed what triggered the emergency system, the report said, citing sources familiar with the inquiry.
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