Latest news with #CaptainSumeetSabharwal
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Air India plane crash latest: Flights cancelled as Dreamliners face scrutiny days after tragedy that killed 270
Air India has cancelled or delayed multiple international flights serviced by Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners following last week's crash that killed more than 270 people. Several international routes – including links between India and London, Paris, Vienna, and Dubai – were disrupted yesterday as Air India halted operations on multiple flights. The airline attributed the interruptions to a mix of factors: grounded aircraft, technical issues, restricted airspace, and heightened safety protocols. Hundreds gathered in Mumbai yesterday to honour Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the Air India pilot who has been hailed as a hero for limiting casualties on the ground during last week's crash. Captain Sabharwal issued a mayday call moments after takeoff and residents on the ground have credited him with avoiding a large residential building that was directly on the flight path. Investigators have recovered flight AI171's cockpit voice recorder and will analyse the pilots' final words to help determine the cause of the crash. Why did the Air India flight crash? Here's how experts will investigate the 30-second disaster Maroosha Muzaffar18 June 2025 05:00 India regulator finds no major safety flaws in Air India Dreamliner fleet India's aviation regulator, the DGCA, found no major safety flaws in Air India's Dreamliner fleet after inspecting 24 aircraft, offering some relief amid post-crash scrutiny. However, it flagged ongoing issues with spare-part delays and poor coordination between departments, warning these could affect reliability. Despite the concerns, all inspected planes met current safety standards. Following the crash, India's civil aviation minister had ordered extended inspections of all 33 Boeing 787s in the Indian fleet. Maroosha Muzaffar18 June 2025 04:59 Regulator asks Air India for training data on pilots and dispatcher of crashed plane India's aviation regulator, the DGCA, has requested detailed training records for the pilots and dispatcher of the Air India Dreamliner that crashed last week, killing more than 270 people. The move is part of a broader investigation into the tragedy, led by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). The DGCA also asked flying schools nationwide to carry out compliance checks on safety procedures, training, and coordination, and told airports to hold full-scale emergency drills by 30 June, according to Reuters, which cited a confidential memo seen by them. While no specific concerns have been raised about Air India's operations yet, the requests are standard post-crash procedures. Maroosha Muzaffar18 June 2025 04:30 Multiple international flights cancelled as Air India Dreamliners come under scrutiny Air India has cancelled or delayed multiple international flights operated by Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners following last week's deadly crash that killed more than 270 people. Several international routes – among them London, Paris, Vienna, and Dubai – were disrupted on Tuesday as Air India halted operations on multiple flights. The airline attributed the interruptions to a mix of factors: grounded aircraft, technical issues, restricted airspace, and heightened safety protocols. In the past two days alone, at least three more Dreamliner flights have either been delayed or taken out of service amid intensified inspections mandated by India's aviation authority, which is scrutinising all 33 of Air India's Dreamliners. A Boeing 777 on the San Francisco–Mumbai route was also sidelined due to a mechanical fault. Maroosha Muzaffar18 June 2025 03:56 WATCH: British wellness couple posted 'Goodbye India' video from airport before fatal Air India plane crash Bryony Gooch18 June 2025 03:30 'Why me?' Six extraordinary stories of sole plane crash survivors The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 270 people somehow walked from the wreckage of the aircraft after it crashed in the city of Ahmedabad. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was in seat 11A near the emergency exit, and managed to escape through the broken hatch. He was filmed after Thursday's disaster limping along the street in a bloodstained T-shirt with bruises on his face. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plummeted seconds after take-off and erupted in a ball of fire, killing everyone else on board. As extraordinary as it seems, the 40-year-old Briton's miraculous escape isn't the first story of a sole air-crash survivor. Dozens of stories have been shared from as far back as 1929, when 34-year-old Lou Foote survived a crash that killed 14 others in Newark, New Jersey. Here, senior reporter Alex Ross takes a look at six survivor stories. The startling stories of six plane crash sole survivors after India Air tragedy 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 for ever Bryony Gooch18 June 2025 02:30 'It's all very raw': Twenty victims of the Air India plane crash connected to the same London temple Thousands of people have been left in mourning after the Air India plane disaster claimed more than 240 lives on Thursday. But one north-west London community, some 4,000 miles away from the Ahmedabad crash site, is feeling the impact more than most. Twenty of the victims have connections to the same temple in Harrow, its leader has said, with multiple families now trying to come to terms with what has happened. Among those killed in the Dreamliner disaster are a mother and father who lost their son, a pilot, in a plane crash in France just a few years ago. Holly Evans reports: Twenty victims of Air India plane disaster all connected to the same London temple Shri Rajrajeshwar Guruji International Siddhashram Shakti Centre said multiple worshippers had lost loved ones in the tragedy Bryony Gooch18 June 2025 01:30 Watch: Miracle moment British survivor of Air India crash emerges from flames of wreckage Bryony Gooch18 June 2025 00:30 India regulator says no 'major safety concerns' on Air India's Boeing 787 fleet India's aviation safety watchdog said on Tuesday surveillance conducted on Air India's Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns, days after one of its jets crashed, killing at least 271 people. "The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement. The DGCA also said 24 of Air India's 33 Boeing 787 aircraft had completed an "enhanced safety inspection" it had ordered the airline to carry out. The regulator, in a meeting with senior officials of Air India, raised concerns about recent maintenance-related issues reported by the airline. It advised the carrier to "strictly adhere to regulations", strengthen coordination across its businesses and ensure availability of adequate spares to mitigate passenger delays, it added. Bryony Gooch17 June 2025 23:30 Experts say investigation into crash 'could take time' Aurobindo Handa, former director general of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, has said the investigation into last week's crash would likely be a long process as the aircraft was badly charred. He added that ascertaining the condition of the black boxes recovered from the crash site was vital as the heat generated from the crash could be possibly higher than the bearable threshold of the device. Daniel Keane17 June 2025 22:30
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Air India: How the Boeing Dreamliner crash investigation is unfolding
Less than 40 how long Air India Flight 171 was airborne before it plunged into a densely populated neighbourhood in Ahmedabad in one of India's rarest aviation disasters in recent now face the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and decoding the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to piece together what went catastrophically wrong in the seconds after take-off. Under international rules set by the UN aviation body ICAO, a preliminary investigation report should be released within 30 days, with the final report ideally completed within 12 London Gatwick-bound aircraft, piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, lifted off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad at 13:39 local time [08:09 GMT] on Thursday, with 242 people and nearly 100 tonnes of fuel on board. Within moments, a mayday call crackled from the cockpit. It would be the last transmission. This was followed by a loss of altitude and a crash engulfed in could have caused Air India plane to crash in 30 seconds?Captain Kishore Chinta, a former investigator with India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), calls this "the rarest of the rare" crashes - a controlled flight into terrain just 30 seconds after take-off. "To my knowledge, nothing quite like this has ever happened," he told the both engines fail due to bird strikes or fuel contamination? Were the flaps improperly extended, reducing lift on a heavily loaded jet in extreme heat? Was there a maintenance error during engine servicing? Or did an inadvertent crew action cut off fuel to both engines? Investigators will be probing all these possibilities - and more. Air crash investigations rely on triangulation and elimination - matching physical evidence from the wreckage with recorded aircraft performance data to build a coherent picture of what went scorched cable, damaged turbine blade, airplane maintenance log, and signals and sounds from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - the so-called "black box" - will be examined. The BBC spoke to accident experts to understand how the investigation will the first clues on the ground may come from the wreckage of the two engines, at least three investigators said."You can tell from the damage whether the engines were generating power at impact - turbines fracture differently when spinning at high speed," says Peter Goelz, a former managing director of US's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). "That's the first clue to what went wrong." Turbines are crucial rotating components that play a key role in extracting energy to generate thrust."If the engines weren't producing power, investigators have a serious case on their hands - and the focus will shift sharply to the cockpit."What happened in the cockpit will be revealed by the Boeing 787's Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) - or the "black boxes" - which, investigators say, will help tell the story. (Indian officials say the recorders have been recovered from the crash site.)These devices capture extensive flight data and cockpit audio - from pilot radio calls to ambient cockpit sounds. Voice recordings come from individual pilot mics, radio transmissions and an area microphone that picks up background noise in the recorders track with high precision the position of gear and flap levers, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow and even fire handle activation. "If the flight data recorder shows the engines were making full power, then the attention will move to the flaps and slats. If they are found to be extended as needed, then it becomes a very difficult investigation," says Mr Goelz. Flaps and slats increase lift at lower speeds, helping an aircraft take off and land safely by allowing it to fly slower without stalling."If [the trail leads] to a problem in the flight management control system, that would raise serious concerns - not just for Boeing, but for the entire aviation industry."The Boeing 787's flight management control system is a highly automated suite that manages navigation, performance and guidance. It integrates data from a number of sensors to optimise the aircraft's flight path and fuel over 1,100 Boeing 787s flying worldwide since 2011, investigators must determine whether this was a systemic issue that could affect the global fleet - or a one-off failure unique to this flight, experts say. "If it points to a system problem, then the regulatory bodies have to make some tough decisions very quickly," says Mr far, there is no indication of fault on anyone's part. India's civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday that a recent inspection of Air India's Boeing 787 fleet - 24 of 33 aircraft have been checked so far - "did not reveal any major safety concern," adding that the planes and maintenance systems complied with existing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said on 12 June: "Boeing will defer to India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) for information on Air India Flight 171, in line with UN ICAO protocol."Decoding of the data at the AAIB lab in Delhi will be led by Indian investigators, with experts from Boeing, engine-maker GE, Air India and Indian regulators. Investigators from the NTSB and UK will also be participating."In my experience, teams can usually determine what happened fairly quickly," Mr Goelz says. "But understanding why it happened can take much longer."The wreckage may yield other clues. "Every part - wire, nut, bolt - will be meticulously collected," says Mr Chinta. Typically, wreckage is moved to a nearby hangar or secure facility, laid out to identify the nose, tail and wingtips, and then pieced together. In this case, depending on what the flight data and voice recorders reveal, a full reconstruction may not be necessary, investigators importance of wreckage varies by accident, say investigators. For Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, it was crucial - reconstruction of the nose revealed clear shrapnel damage from a Russian-made missile. In the wreckage, investigators will also examine fuel filters, lines, valves and residual fuel to check for contamination - something that's easy to detect or rule out, a crash investigator who preferred to remain unnamed, said. Also, he believed that the refuelling equipment used before departure "has likely been quarantined and already inspected".That's not all. Investigators will gather maintenance and fault history records from the airline and Boeing's ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting system) which transmits data via radio or satellite to both Boeing and Air India, says Mr will review all flights operated by the aircraft and the crew over recent months, along with the technical log of pilot-reported faults and corrective actions taken before release of aircraft to will also examine pilot licenses, training records, simulator performance and instructor remarks - including how pilots handled scenarios like engine failures in advanced flight simulators. "I reckon Air India would have already provided these records to the investigation team," says Mr will review the service history of all components of the aircraft that were removed and replaced, examining reported defects for any recurring issues - or signs of problems that could have affected this flight."These investigations are extraordinarily complex. They take time, but there will be early indicators of what likely went wrong," says Mr Goelz.A big reason is how far technology has come. "One of the first accidents I investigated in 1994 had a flight data recorder tracking just four parameters," he says."Today's recorders capture hundreds - if not thousands - every second. That alone has transformed the way we investigate crashes."Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
The Sun
4 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Air India jet crash fireball was so intense it may have MELTED black boxes as families face agonising wait for answers
THE Air India plane crash generated so much heat that it might have melted the aircraft's black boxes, investigators warned. As grieving families agonisingly wait for answers, authorities rushing to work out the cause of the incident have cautioned the inquiry could take a long time. 8 8 8 The London-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed on a medical college hostel soon after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad. Only one passenger survived the crash, while 241 people on board and 29 on the ground were killed in one of India's worst aviation disaster in decades. Amit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert, said the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - or black boxes - are crucial to piece together the sequence of events. Planes usually carry two black boxes, which are small but tough electronic flight data recorders. One records flight data, such as altitude and speed, whilst the other monitors the cockpit sound. But whilst both devices are designed to survive accidents, investigators have warned the heat generated from the crash could have melted the boxes. The first was recovered from a rooftop near where the plane came down just 28 hours after the crash. We already know that the pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, made a desperate mayday call to air traffic control in the moments before the disaster. He cried out: "'Thrust not achieved [...] falling [...] Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" The two pilots then wrestled for 17 seconds with the controls as the jet sank through the air before careening into the buildings below. New video of doomed Air India flight 'shows Boeing 787 did lose power' just before crash Sabharwal had 22 years of experience and had racked up 8,200 in the air. The plane gained just a few hundred feet of altitude when the power apparently cut out, killing more Brits than any air disaster since 9/11. Singh said the investigating authorities will scan CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash. Investigators will also study the pilot training records, total load of the aircraft and any thrust issues related to the plane's engine. The Indian government has also set up a separate committee to examine the causes leading to the crash and work out ways to prevent a disaster like this happening again. But despite the large cohort of investigators working to find out what happened on that fateful flight, aircraft bosses warned it could take some time because of the "charred" plane. 8 8 The committee is expected to file a preliminary report within three months. Authorities have also begun inspecting and carrying out additional maintenance and checks of Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent any future incident. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet. The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. Since the devastating incident Air India has cancelled multiple scheduled flights. Flight AI 159 was planned to depart Ahmedabad, India, at 1.10pm local time on Tuesday, and arrive at Gatwick airport at 6.25pm BST. Air India's website shows the flight was initially delayed by one hour and 50 minutes but was later cancelled. A flight from Gatwick to Amritsar, India, set to depart at 8pm BST was also axed, as well as Paris-bound flight AI143 from Delhi. The cancelled flights were scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which is the same type of aircraft that crashed on June 12. 8 8 8
The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Family bids emotional goodbye to pilot of doomed Air India plane: ‘He tried his best'
Mourners gathered on Tuesday for the funeral of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, one of two pilots at the helm of the Air India flight bound for London Gatwick that crashed just outside Ahmedabad airport last week. All but one of AI171's 242 passengers and crew died after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner came down within 30 seconds of take-off, crashing into a building housing trainee medics at a major medical college. Only one passenger survived, and at least 29 people on the ground, including five medical students inside the hostel, were also killed. Aged 56, Captain Sabharwal was a veteran pilot with 8,200 hours of flying experience. His mayday call to air traffic controllers was the last communication received from the cockpit before the crash, and local residents have called him a 'hero' for diverting the plane away from a densely populated residential area, suggesting he could have saved hundreds of lives on the ground. He lived with his parents in Mumbai's Powai, and they received his remains on Tuesday morning after his identity was confirmed through DNA testing. Officials said the casket carrying Captain Sabharwal's remains reached Mumbai airport from Ahmedabad by a flight and were taken to his residence in Powai's Jal Vayu Vihar. Indian TV channels broadcast footage of the funeral at the pilot's house, where his elderly father offered a final tribute to his son as friends and family gathered around. "Only a few days ago, he told his father that he would be quitting his job to look after him full time," said Dilip Lande, a local Shiv Sena politician who visited the family to offer his condolences. A friend of the family said Sabharwal was a 'very grounded and a wonderful son'. 'He tried his best. He sacrificed his life to save others. I salute him,' a friend told NDTV news. A neighbour of the Sabharwals recounted the pilot's last message for them before he flew out. "Whenever he flew out, Sumeet would ask us to keep an eye on his father. He has now been left devastated," a neighbour said, reported Hindustan Times. Local residents near the scene of the crash said their three-storey apartment building was directly on the flight's path and that Captain Sabharwal appeared to have swerved to avoid them in pursuit of open ground. Jahanvi Rajput, 28, told The Sun that "thanks to the pilot Captain Sabharwal, we survived. He's a hero. It is because of him we are alive.' "The green space next to us was visible to him and that's where he went," she said. The flight instead crashed into the top floor of an accommodation block where medical students had assembled to eat lunch. On Monday investigators recovered the flight's cockpit voice recorder. Authorities suspect the crash was the result of an 'extremely rare' loss of power from both engines at once, and will analyse both 'black box' flight data recorders to help understand how that happened.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
How miracle Brit survived crash: One mile in the air… then tail strikes medical building and jet smashes into pieces before survivor walks away from flaming wreckage while talking to his dad on phone
Doomed Air India Flight 171 was airborne for just one mile before the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, carrying 242 passengers and crew, came crashing back to earth in one of India's worst ever aviation disasters. The death toll now stands at 279 as rescuers continue picking through rubble. But the miraculous escape of passenger 11A - British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh - with nothing but minor injuries has also captivated audiences and stumped experts. The Boeing jet took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat at 1:38pm local time (08:08 BST). The flight reached an altitude of just 625 feet, or 190 metres, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24. There it glided, seemingly suspended midair, but seconds later began descending rapidly as the engines appeared to give out. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder had already placed a mayday call, but they had little over a minute between lifting off from the tarmac and suffering their fatal crash. The underside of their jet smashed into a building housing trainee doctors working at the nearby BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, killing dozens more civilians. Now, as India's aviation authorities conduct their investigations and medical staff perform the grim task of identifying the remains of the dead for burial, this is how the final journey of Air India flight 171 played out. The crash A selection of footage emerged in the hours following the crash that showed Flight 171's entire flight from takeoff to crash. The takeoff appeared perfectly normal, but within seconds of leaving the runway the passenger jet appeared frozen in mid-air, unable to gain altitude. Aviation experts believe the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may suddenly lost power 'at the most critical phase of flight' after takeoff. The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double-engine stall. Commercial airline pilot Steve Schreiber, who analyses plane crashes and close calls, said a new HD-quality video is a 'gamechanger' in diagnosing the cause and suggested the footage supported the dual engine failure theory. He pointed out that in the footage, a small device is seen extended underneath the plane's fuselage, known as the Ram Access Turbine (RAT), whose function is to support the aircraft's electrical power and hydraulic pressure in an emergency. Schreiber said that on a 787 there are three things that will deploy the RAT automatically: a massive electrical failure; a massive hydraulic failure; or a dual engine failure. The plane's flight path would have taken it directly above the B.J. Medical College and Civil Hospital along with a residential street. The plane came down 1.6 kilometres - almost exactly one mile, from the end of the runway, and just a few hundred metres shy of the medical facility. Ahmedabad residents who witnessed the crash explained how the aircraft banked slightly to avoid apartment buildings in the final seconds before impact. Ahmedabad residents who witnessed the crash explained how the aircraft banked slightly to avoid apartment buildings in the final seconds before impact Unfortunately, the underside of the jet, including the landing gear and part of its tail, clipped a dormitory for staff working at the hospital. The machinery smashed through the upper levels of the building and triggered a fire in which more than 30 people, mostly medical students, perished. With the landing gear and plane's tail left embedded in the stricken structure, the rest of the jet skidded into a grassy area a stone's throw away from residential properties - narrowly averting an even greater catastrophe. The jet was heavily fuelled for the long-haul flight to London, which ignited and quickly whipped up a brutal inferno seconds after impact. Residents of the nearby apartments hailed the pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, as a hero for avoiding their homes and saving yet more lives in the process. 'Thanks to the pilot Captain Sabharwal, we survived. He's a hero. It is because of him we are alive,' resident Jahanvi Rajput, 28, told The Sun. 'The green space next to us was visible to him and that's where he went.' Mum-of-two Chancal Bai, 50, added: 'If the plane had crashed into this residential area, there would have been hundreds more victims.' The miraculous escape The sole survivor of the disaster told reporters how he 'just walked out' of the damaged jet as it lay at the crash site moments before it was engulfed in flames. Viswash Ramesh, 40, said that he was in India with his brother for the best part of a year to visit relatives and was returning home to Leicester. He was seated in 11A on the doomed flight from Ahmedabad. While sitting up on a hospital bed, he told DD India this weekend that he 'can't explain' everything that he witnessed as the plane plummeted to the ground. But he recalled that lights on board the plane began 'flickering green and white' when the engines seemed to lose thrust. As the plane ground to a halt, it rotated on its axis, leaving Ramesh's side of the jet closer to the ground and allowing him to practically step off the plane without suffering further injury. 'The emergency door was broken, my seat is broken,' he said. Asked if he escaped the plane by jumping to the ground, he replied: 'I am not jumping. I just walked out.' 'It's a miracle,' he said when discussing his survival and injuries, explaining how a rupture in the plane's fuselage left enough space for him to squeeze through. 'I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out,' he said, adding that he saw 'people dying in front of my eyes'. He cut into an adjacent street as the jet fuel ignited and narrowly escaped the inferno. Stunning footage seems to uphold his account - Ramesh is seen emerging from the wreckage and stumbling toward gobsmacked onlookers while clasping his phone as he called his father. A thick cloud of black smoke is seen emanating from the disaster site just over his shoulder. Speaking to Indian press, Ramesh's dumbstruck doctor said: 'He has minor injuries only. He has some abrasions over his left forearm and swelling over left eyelid and over the eyes. 'Chest and abdomen is clear, no lung fractures present. The patient is vitally stable.' The aftermath Emergency and rescue services say they have recovered more than 270 bodies from the site, including around 30 people killed when the plane hit the medical dormitory. 279 people are believed to have died in the tragedy. Indian authorities have so far handed over the remains of 47 victims, and the bodies of 92 others have been identified through DNA matching and will be transferred to relatives soon. The first funerals for some of the victims have been held in Ahmedabad, but relatives of the dead have complained about delays and a lack of communication from authorities. 'They said it would take 48 hours. But it's been four days and we haven't received any response,' said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner. 'My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family,' Christian said on Sunday. 'So what happens next?' Among the latest victims identified was Vijay Rupani, a senior member of India's ruling party and former chief minister of Gujarat state. His flag-draped coffin was carried in Ahmedabad by soldiers, along with a portrait of the politician draped in a garland of flowers. Meanwhile, investigators from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) are now analysing the wreckage of the jet along with the contents of the black boxes recovered from the crash site. These small but tough electronic flight data recorders are made with robust materials such as titanium or steel and insulated with fire-resistant materials to withstand extreme conditions during a crash. The aircraft crashed into the densely populated Meghani Nagar area near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, resulting in a massive explosion and fire due to the heavy fuel load for the international journey Relatives bury the coffins containing the remains of Rozar David Christian and his wife, Rachnaben Rozar Christian, both victims of the Air India plane crash, at a cemetery in Ahmedabad, India, Sunday, June 15, 2025 People gather for a funeral procession of former Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, who died when an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane crashed during take-off, in Rajkot, Gujarat, India, June 16, 2025 One records flight data, such as altitude and speed and the other contains the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), capturing all audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, radio transmissions, warning alarms and ambient mechanical sounds. The devices should allow investigators to piece together a second-by-second reconstruction of the events that led to the fatal fireball. Alongside the formal investigation into Flight 171's demise by the AAIB, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash. The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement Saturday. Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since the crash on Thursday. Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with 'immediate urgency.' It comes as another Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane bound for New Delhi turned back to its departure airport in Hong Kong early Monday morning after the pilot suspected a technical issue mid-air, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Flight AI315 took off from Hong Kong at 12:16pm local time and landed just over an hour later, according to tracking data on Flightradar24. Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Hong Kong-New Delhi flight.
