After Shock

While the world is in shock over the June 12 Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad that killed around 270 people, the aviation community says it was just a matter of time before a disaster like this struck the company’s fleet

- Avantika Mehta

FOR anyone tracking the Indian aviation sector closely, the June 12 crash of Air India flight AI 171 didn’t come out of nowhere. The crash, considered one of the biggest in Indian aviation history, followed years of blinking warning lights that included unresolved personnel complaints, long-ignored safety concerns, whistleblower warnings and a regulatory framework that some experts say has been too lenient.

While the exact reasons for the crash remain unknown, this is the first such crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the company’s flagship commercial aircraft. Boeing itself has been dogged by controversy for years. Most recently, the company faced the US Senate in congressional hearings in January when a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight. Just weeks before the June 12 crash, Boeing had agreed to pay $1.1bn (£812m) to avoid prosecution over two 737 plane crashes that killed 346 people.

With more than 270 lives lost, the crash has prompted a national reckoning and raised uncomfortable questions about whether it was, in hindsight, an accident waiting to happen.

The 787, however, has been flying for years without any fatal incidents. “The 787 is a proven aircraft,” says Captain Madan Kukar, who retired from Air India in 2001 after a storied career in aviation.

Others in the aviation sector allege that while one must wait for the government's investigation to provide clarity, the work and safety culture at Air India had been lagging for decades and that this accident was “just waiting to happen”.