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Investigators Quell Speculation in Air India Crash Probe as Veteran Pilot Joins Team

NTSB chief calls early reports on pilot error “premature and speculative”; AAIB enlists veteran pilot R.S. Sandhu as expert advisor on fuel-switch analysis.

Debris of Air India flight 171 is pictured after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025. Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed the crash site on June 13 of a London-bound passenger jet which ploughed into a residential area of India's Ahmedabad city, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground.
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Overview

  • On July 19, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy urged media and the public to direct all investigative questions to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau after calling pilot-fault reports “premature and speculative.”
  • The Federation of Indian Pilots has issued legal notices to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters demanding apologies and retractions for coverage that it terms baselessly blaming Captain Sumeet Sabharwal.
  • India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has mandated inspections of fuel-control switch locking mechanisms across all Boeing 737 and 787 aircraft operating in the country.
  • Joint AAIB and NTSB teams are examining cockpit voice recordings, flight-data parameters and human-factors evidence to determine why both engine fuel switches transitioned to ‘cutoff’ seconds after takeoff.
  • On July 20, the AAIB added Captain R.S. Sandhu—former Air India operations director and designated Boeing 787 examiner—as a domain expert to strengthen the technical review of preliminary findings.