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Final report on Air India Boeing 787 crash delayed as engine analysis remains incomplete

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Indian investigators will delay the release of the final report into the fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787 ahead of its first anniversary this Friday. The extension is necessary to conclude complex technical analyses of the aircraft’s powerplant, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Technical investigation focused on GE Aerospace engines

The engines, manufactured by GE Aerospace, are at the center of the probe into the crash, which occurred shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. The disaster claimed 260 lives, making it the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade.

A preliminary report released last year revealed that the fuel control switches for the Boeing 787’s engines were moved almost simultaneously from the “RUN” to the “CUTOFF” position, starving both powerplants of fuel shortly after liftoff.

To determine the exact causes, investigators have made progress on the following lines of inquiry:

→ Air India Posts Record Losses of Over $2.5 Billion for Fiscal Year 2025-2026

Controversy over interim report and human factor theory

Under international aviation regulations, final reports must be published, where possible, within the first year of the accident; otherwise, authorities must issue an interim statement on each anniversary. Due to the complexity and time required for the investigation, Indian officials opted to draft an interim report instead.

This decision has met with fierce opposition from the Indian Pilots’ Federation union. The organization’s president, CS Randhawa, stated at a press conference in Ahmedabad that this document “will cause further speculation and misunderstanding,” prompting them to formally request that the Government of India and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) refrain from publishing it. The union demands that more technical data be gathered from Boeing and Air India to allow for a refutation of the pilot suicide theory currently being explored by the AAIB.

Examination of flight deck actions

Cockpit voice recordings initially supported the early assessment of US officials, who suggested that the captain cut the fuel flow to the engines. However, the AAIB stated at the time that it was “too early to reach definitive conclusions.”

In light of this scenario, the captain’s father has petitioned India’s highest court to request an independent investigation to evaluate causes unrelated to deliberate pilot action—a hypothesis suspected in other disasters and confirmed in the Germanwings case in 2015. Notably, the preliminary report did not include safety recommendations for Boeing or GE Aerospace, indicating that no technical flaws had been uncovered during that phase.

Operational and commercial impact on Air India

This tragic event marks the world’s first fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a model that has been in commercial service since 2011. The crash has hit Air India at a highly delicate stage of its post-privatization restructuring. This transition process was already slowed by global supply chain issues, Pakistan’s airspace ban on Indian carriers, and, more recently, the geopolitical fallout from the war involving the United States and Israel against Iran.

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