Crashed jet had clean engine history: Air India chairman

Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Wednesday that the Boeing Dreamliner that crashed with 242 people on board last week had a clean engine history, revealing that the right engine was new while the left had been recently serviced, even as the airline announced a 15% reduction in international widebody services to stabilize operations.

- Maulik Pathak and Ateeq Shaikh

NEW DELHI:

In an interview with broadcaster Times Now, Chandrasekaran said Air India Flight 171's right engine was new and installed in March 2025, and that the left engine was last serviced in 2023 and was due for its next maintenance check in December 2025. "Both the engine histories are clean," he said, adding that the aircraft "has a clean history."

The Dreamliner was fitted with GE Aerospace's GEnx engines.

Chandrasekaran said he expects preliminary findings from the crash investigation within 30 days, while calling for complete transparency in the probe. "I think they will give a preliminary finding in 30 days. After that, I don't know when the final finding will be," he said.

"We need a very transparent communication of the findings. Everyone needs to know. I need to know. You need to know. The families need to know whenever it is done," Chandrasekaran emphasized, adding that "Unless or otherwise we know what happened, there is no hope to fix it so that it doesn't happen again."

The chairman said he was confident that "the black box and the recorders will definitely tell the story. And so we just have to wait for that" rather than engage in speculation.

Speaking about the pilots, the chairman said that Captain Sabharwal had more than 11,500 hours of flying experience, the first officer Clive Kundar had more than 3,400 hours of flying experience.

"What I hear from colleagues is that they were excellent pilots and great professionals. So, we can't jump to any conclusions. I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that," he said.