June 30, 2025
NEW DELHI – All possibilities in the Air India AI 171 crash, including sabotage, are being probed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, announced, saying the report is expected in the next three months.
Talking to media persons at the Pune chapter of the ‘Emerging Business Conclave’, the minister said the AAIB was conducting a full inquiry.
“It is being probed from all angles, including any possible sabotage. CCTV footage is being reviewed, and several agencies are involved,” Mohol was quoted as saying.
He termed the plane crash a “rare case”, wherein over 270 people were killed. “It has never happened that both engines have shut down together,” the minister said, referring to pilots and experts’ views that a dual engine failure may have led to the crash.
The black box of flight AI 171 has been recovered and remains in the custody of the AAIB and the investigation would be conducted entirely within the country, Mohol said.
“These devices will not be sent outside the country for a thorough assessment,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Last week, the Centre said the analysis of the data from Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) – recovered from the crash site of Air India Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft in Ahmedabad – is currently underway in full compliance.
All actions related to Black Boxes have so far been taken in full compliance with domestic laws and international obligations in a time-bound manner, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had said in a statement.
Following the accident involving Air India Flight AI-171 on June 12, the AAIB initiated a probe and constituted a multi-disciplinary team the very next day, in line with prescribed norms.
The team, constituted as per international protocol, is led by Director General AAIB and includes an aviation medicine specialist, an ATC officer, and representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is the government investigative agency from the state of manufacture and design, (USA), as required for such investigations.
Both the CVR and FDR were recovered – one from a rooftop of the building at the crash site on June 13 and the other from the debris on June 16.
As many as 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew members were killed in the air crash, which triggered a wider review of aviation safety protocols across the country.