Pilot association questions direction of Air India crash probe: ‘Presumes guilt’

Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau report, while drawing no inferences since it's preliminary, mentions cockpit conversation between pilots on fuel cut-off

Updated on: Jul 12, 2025, 14:27:12 IST

By Aarish Chhabra

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As details emerged from a preliminary inquiry report on the June 12 Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, the Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA) said on Saturday that the probe was "being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots and we strongly object to this line of thought”.

Relatives of the Ahmedabad plane crash victims at the site on June 12. (AP File)

A statement by ALPA chief Sam Thomas on Saturday, July 12, said, “We have been given a copy of the preliminary report which is believed to be furnished by the AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) to the media… We are once again surprised at the secrecy surrounding these investigations.”

Also read | Engines moved from CUTOFF to RUN, but…: What AAIB report said

The statement reiterated that “suitably qualified personnel are not taken on board for these crucial investigations”.

The association pointed towards a specific news report “referring to the inadvertent movement of the fuel control switches". It questioned how this information could reach the publication on July 10.

The association again requested to be given a role in the probe “even in the capacity of observers so as to provide the requisite transparency”.

What report says about pilots' conversation

While drawing no inferences since it's only a preliminary document, the AAIB report has a mention of a conversation between the two pilots, in which one asked the other why he cut off the fuel, and the other responded saying he did not.

Also read: What happens when fuel switches flip during takeoff

This suggests that while one pilot noticed the fuel had been cut off, his colleague denied initiating the action — leaving it open for further probe whether it was human action, or a mechanical or electronic malfunction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aarish Chhabra
Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More

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