Air India crash investigators need more time as bereaved families face longer wait
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said its inquiry into Air India flight 171, which killed 241 people last year, will run six more months as engine-data and flight-recorder analysis is still incomplete. Bereaved families say they are still waiting for full identification reports.
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on Friday that its inquiry into Air India flight 171, which took off from Ahmedabad for London Gatwick on 12 June last year and crashed shortly after take-off, will need another six months. The accident killed all 230 passengers, the 12 cabin crew on board, and one person on the ground.
AAIB chief Sanjay Kumar Singh told the BBC that telemetry analysis being run jointly with engine maker GE Aerospace, plane maker Boeing and India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation was not yet complete. Singh said anomalies in fuel-flow readings had been detected on both engines at the moment of take-off, but added that full verification was taking time.
Lawyer Rajiv Trivedi, who represents some of the bereaved families, told the BBC: "On the first day we were told answers would be coming soon; a year on, we are still in the same place." Some families said they still could not finalise burial arrangements because identification transfer documents for relatives identified by DNA had not yet been issued. Air India and its owner the Tata Group said in this week's capacity-cut statement that the delay in the investigation has affected decisions tied to identification.
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