In a significant development in the Air India Flight 171 crash case, Indian investors are set to submit the final report, stating the cause to be an ‘almost certainly’ intentional act of turning off the aircraft's fuel switches by a pilot, according to a report by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, citing sources in Western aviation agencies.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed on June 12, 2025, shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, as the plane lost thrust from both engines just 32 seconds after takeoff. Around 260 people, 241 of the 242 passengers and crew on board, and 19 people on the ground when the aircraft struck a medical students’ hostel, were killed during the crash.
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It was confirmed in the preliminary report, released a month after the crash, that the engines stopped after the fuel switches were moved from “run” to “cutoff.” The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot asking why the engines were turned off, with the other denying responsibility, though the speakers were not identified.
According to the report, investigators found no evidence of a technical failure, concluding on the basis of a detailed analysis of flight data and cleaned-up cockpit voice recordings, which reportedly helped determine which pilot operated the fuel switches.
While Indian authorities, including the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the Civil Aviation Ministry, have not commented on the report, Corriere della Sera said the main suspect identified in the investigation is the aircraft’s commander, Sumeet Sabharwal, who died in the crash. However, the newspaper noted that the final report may avoid explicitly assigning blame to prevent political and public controversy.
As per the findings, a re-examination of the aircraft’s black box data was conducted in December, when Indian investigators travelled to the US to analyse the recordings at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) laboratories.
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Flight data analysis reportedly showed that the left engine, located on the captain’s side, shut down first, followed by the right engine. It also mentioned that the US experts assisting the probe were pushing for recognition of human involvement after simulator tests failed to produce any scenario in which both engines shut down due to mechanical failure alone.
Indian pilots’ associations and the late captain’s family have criticised what they describe as an attempt to shift blame onto pilots, calling instead for greater scrutiny of the aircraft manufacturer, airline procedures and regulatory oversight.