Overview
- Investigators will not publish a final report on the Air India AI‑171 crash on the first anniversary because critical engine and engine‑management analyses remain incomplete and are being carried out in France and at GE facilities in the United States.
- AAIB’s July 2025 preliminary finding that both engine fuel control switches moved from RUN to CUTOFF seconds after takeoff and a brief cockpit voice exchange remain the central unexplained facts driving competing theories.
- Pilot groups and relatives say an interim status note would fuel confusion and have demanded a judicially supervised inquiry, while AAIB plans an interim statement to explain progress under international rules.
- Technical debate centers on whether an automated protection or control system such as TCMA/FADEC could have commanded a fuel cutoff without pilot input or whether an electrical failure or deliberate action caused the switches to change.
- The stalled timeline matters for victims’ families seeking answers and for regulators because AI‑171 was the first fatal hull loss of a Boeing 787 and the probe involves Boeing, GE, the NTSB and the FAA.