‘Nothing wrong with Air India operations, ‘ says CEO referring to AAIB AI 171 crash prelim report

NEW DELHI: Air India MD & CEO Campbell Wilson on Wednesday said the preliminary report of the June 12 Ahmedabad crash showed there’s “nothing wrong” with the airline’s operations and its existing practices. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) had released its interim report within a month of the crash.“Anything that happens in the industry, whether that’s us or others, is a cause for introspection. It is a cause for reviewing practices…The interim report indicated that there was nothing with aircraft engines or practices that required changing. But of course, we’re always looking at how we can keep improving, keep getting better and keep learning,” Wilson said.An AI London-bound Boeing 787 had crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 13, killing 241 people on board.“This is really the first public engagement that we’ve done in India since that tragic day,” Wilson during a panel discussion at Aviation India 2025 summit here. “It was absolutely devastating for the people involved, for the families of those involved, for the company, for the staff.”According to AAIB’s preliminary report, fuel supply to both engines was cut off shortly after take-off. Wilson said, “We’ve had more than 600 people on the ground in Ahmedabad. We’ve set up the trust (to support affected people) through Tata Sons. We have provided ex-gratia payments to all the families of those affected. We’ve obviously completed the interim compensation of our own and we are working through the final compensation. There is commitment from both Air India and from Tata is to do absolutely all we can for as long as it takes to bring closure to those that have been affected.““We’re also working with investigators. We’re not involved in the investigation directly. It’s something that is run by the government. The interim report indicated that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft, the engines or the operation of the airline. We obviously, as with everyone else, await the final report, and if there’s anything to learn from it, we will absolutely make sure that we do. But for the moment, our focus is on to make sure that we help them the best way we can,” he added.About the flight cuts post the crash, Wilson said: “We had deliberately, both voluntarily and from a regulatory caution perspective, put in additional checks, and that has now progressively gone back to a more normal level of operations.”