Tragedy and farce

We may not know for some time what led to Air India 171's tragic crash just a few seconds after it took off.

- MIHIR S SHARMA

Crash investigations are some of the most comprehensive such inquiries carried out, and it is vitally important that we wait for this process rather than speculate.

After all, there are some things that we already know: The class of aircraft in question, the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner", has never previously been involved in a fatal incident — unlike, say, the same company's controversial 737-MAX, which has suffered several crashes and been grounded more than once. It has been less than a fortnight since Boeing came to a deal with the United States (US) government to pay $1.1 billion in order to avoid prosecution for two past crashes of the 737-MAX. Critics of Boeing — of whom there are many — would say that the Dreamliner was developed when engineers rather than accountants ran the company, and so is a more reliable aircraft. Nevertheless, the company's share fell 5 per cent after news of the crash broke.

In other words, the reasons for this crash may wind up being more than usually difficult to ascertain. Any initial assumptions and statements may wind up being corrected over time; this is often the case with aviation accident investigations.