Air India Crash Anniversary: Why Final Aviation Report of the Ahmedabad Tragedy Still Delayed?

A year has passed since the tragic Air India plane crash that turned an ordinary air travel into one of the darkest aviation disasters. The disaster has left behind deep scars not only to the families of the victims but also to the whole country. The Ahmedabad Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was bound for London Gatwick when it crashed just 32 seconds after take off from Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport on June 12. The aircraft hit a busy road and then plunged into a student hotel mess building at B.J. Medical College. The tragic incident resulted in the loss of 260 total lives in which 241 of 242 passengers were on board and 19 were on the ground. 

Ahmedabad Air India Plane Crash: Final Report Delayed  

Indian investigators are expected to delay issuing a final report into a deadly Air India Boeing BA.N 787 crash by the one-year anniversary on Friday, citing the need to complete an analysis of the plane’s engines, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

A preliminary report released last year showed the 787’s engine fuel control switches moved almost simultaneously from “RUN” to “CUTOFF,” starving both engines of fuel shortly after the flight took off.

A year ago today Air India Flight AI171 (Boeing 787) crashed approximately 32 seconds after takeoff.

241 people on board died, 1 survived.

Fuel cutoff switches were set to CUTOFF.

Investigation continues amid much controversy. pic.twitter.com/unOtOSCiut

— AviationCrazy (@aviation_on_x) June 12, 2026

Investigators conducted engine testing in April and visited France last month as part of an analysis of the engine management unit, the source told Reuters on the condition of anonymity because the information is not public.

Earlier on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported the final report into the crash was expected within three months once studies of the engines, which had been sent to the U.S. for examination, were concluded.

Under international rules, a final report is due “if possible” within a year of an accident, but sometimes investigations take longer, so if that is ​not completed, an interim statement should be issued on each anniversary.

#WATCH | Ahmedabad, Gujarat: On one year of Air India Flight AI 171 Plane Crash In Ahmedabad, Radhika Mishara, daughter of late former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani says, “It has been a year, we have come to pay tribute; Papa’s service activities are continuing, and many such… pic.twitter.com/EqQhYXsg8l

— ANI (@ANI) June 12, 2026

Why Final Ahmedabad Air India Plane Crash Aviation Report Still Delayed? 

Indian officials were preparing an ​interim report rather than a final one ahead of the first anniversary because the investigation was deemed complex and time-consuming. At that time, a source told Reuters the timing of the final report had not been decided yet.

The release of an interim report has been opposed in some quarters, notably by the Federation of Indian Pilots union. The union has previously pushed for investigators to seek more technical data on the plane from Boeing and Air India to allow for a “rebuttal of the pilot suicide theory being explored by the AAIB”.

#WATCH | Ahmedabad, Gujarat: British High Commissioner Lindy Cameron pays tribute to victims of AI-171 plane crash on June 12, 2025 caliming the lives of 241 people, including 12 crew members.

AI 171 was travelling from Ahmedabad to London, when it crashed on June 12, 2025. pic.twitter.com/ZX79erAdHH

— ANI (@ANI) June 12, 2026

“It will cause more speculation and more misunderstanding,” CS Randhawa, the union’s president, told reporters at a packed press conference in Ahmedabad ahead of the anniversary of the crash.

“We have requested the Indian government and India‘s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) not to come out with any interim report.”

The AAIB, India‘s aviation ministry, Air India, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing and GE Aerospace did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Cockpit Recording Raises Fresh Questions 

A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India 787 before it crashed supported the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to its engines, according to U.S. officials’ ​early assessment reported by Reuters last year.

The AAIB said at the time it was “too early to reach any definite conclusions.”

The father of the captain asked India‘s top court to order an independent investigation that took into account causes other than deliberate pilot action, which has been suspected in some other fatal crashes and confirmed in the case of Germanwings in 2015.

The preliminary report did not make any safety recommendations to Boeing or GE, indicating no technical issues had been discovered at that time.

It was the world’s first crash involving a 787 Dreamliner, a Boeing model that has been in service since 2011.

The crash also hit Air India at a sensitive stage of its post-privatisation turnaround, which has been slowed by supply-chain snags, an airspace ban imposed by Pakistan on Indian carriers and more recently, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

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