Senior members of India’s aviation fraternity are expressing serious concern over the direction of the ongoing investigation into the fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Captain Sam Thomas, a veteran pilot and president of the Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India), criticized the way the inquiry has unfolded, alleging a lack of objectivity and technical oversight in the official report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
Speaking to NDTV, Captain Thomas noted that two key issues have deeply unsettled aviation professionals: unverified public speculation and the absence of qualified experts contributing to the official findings. While he acknowledged that media speculation is part of journalism, he drew the line at non-technical individuals commenting authoritatively on matters involving complex aviation systems.
“We are okay with the media speculating... However, we object to pilots or so-called experts who came on board and speculate,” he said. “They insinuated this is something the captain has done with a motive to end his own life, which is farthest from the truth.”
Captain Thomas also raised doubts about the integrity of the AAIB’s report, suggesting it lacked local control and contained basic factual errors. He criticized the timing of the report's release and pointed out mistakes such as the incorrect expansion of aviation terms and the wrong issuance date of the pilot's licence.
“You released that in the middle of the night… You cannot even get the full form of FADEC correctly… How do I expect you to go through the entire report?” he asked, further accusing the report of being selectively framed, as per the report.
Reacting to an article in the Wall Street Journal that appeared to question the pilot’s intentions, Captain Thomas suggested the publication may have been fed selective information. “It’s our fault. It’s not their fault… If I were heading this committee, I would have insisted on confidentiality agreements,” he said, lamenting the lack of control over how information was being disseminated.
Highlighting systemic issues within aviation oversight, Captain Thomas referred to the Boeing 737 MAX crashes linked to the MCAS system. He praised Ethiopian investigators for conducting an independent and robust probe that revealed design flaws. He implied that similar independence and integrity were lacking in India’s current approach.
“They did their in-house investigation and that’s when it came out... Let’s not just look at the OEM or some investigating body. Everybody who is not telling the truth has something to gain,” he said.
The Air India Boeing 787 incident, which occurred shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, resulted in the loss of 260 lives. As investigations continue, the pilot community is urging authorities to ensure transparency, technical accuracy, and fairness in uncovering the truth.
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