A federation representing Indian pilots is publicly disputing the preliminary findings of last year’s Air India Flight 171 crash investigation, calling for new simulator tests and raising the possibility that investigators have the sequence of events wrong.
The Federation of Indian Pilots wrote to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau following the release of an interim report on the crash — which killed 260 people aboard and on the ground, leaving a single survivor — on the one-year anniversary of the disaster.
The core dispute centers on timing. The official report indicates the aircraft’s emergency Ram Air Turbine deployed roughly 4-5 seconds after a fuel control switch movement. Pilots say Boeing 787 simulator data shows the RAT typically takes around 18 seconds to generate power after a fuel interruption — a gap that, if accurate, suggests the RAT may have deployed due to an earlier electrical fault, not the fuel switch event investigators have focused on. CCTV footage from Ahmedabad Airport reportedly shows the RAT already deployed while the aircraft was still on the runway before takeoff.
The pilots’ group is also flagging a pre-takeoff sequence that includes a loud explosion-like sound, cabin light dimming, and multiple maintenance messages transmitted before departure.
Why It Matters: When a pilots’ federation publicly challenges an official crash investigation on a Boeing 787, it matters — both for aviation safety broadly and for the millions of passengers who fly that aircraft type every week. This investigation isn’t closed.
Source: WION News
