The civil aviation ministry on Monday said all probable causes leading to the Air India plane crash in June last year are being investigated, and all efforts are being made to complete the probe in a time-bound manner.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the crash that killed a total of 260 people.
In one of the worst aircraft accidents in India, a total of 260 people, including 241 passengers, died after Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol on Monday told the Rajya Sabha that the AAIB probe is in progress.
"All probable causes leading to the accident are being investigated, and all efforts are being made to complete the investigation in a time-bound manner," he said in a written reply.
In its preliminary report on the crash that was released on July 12 last year, AAIB said the fuel supply to both engines of the plane was cut off within a gap of one second, causing confusion in the cockpit soon after takeoff.
"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it had said.
On Monday, Mohol also said the preliminary report on the accident contains factual information based on the evidence available at that point in time and does not include any interim safety recommendations.
A US aviation safety organisation said this week that an electrical failure may have caused the Boeing 787 aircraft to crash into an Ahmedabad residential neighbourhood.
The Foundation for Aviation Safety reports said the whistleblower (whose identity has been withheld) said the Boeing aircraft operating as AI-171 suffered 'recurring technical and systems-related issues'.
This has been the case since it entered service in 2014, it was claimed.
"The failure to publicly disclose records related to prior serious incidents, including fire events, undermines confidence in the investigation process," the report said.
The FAS also criticised the non-disclosure of data relating to the plane's mechanical condition and cockpit voice recordings, i.e., recorded conversations between the pilots, and said 'without these the sequence of electronic and system failures cannot be reconstructed'.
A source on January 30 told PTI that the AAIB team probing last year's fatal Air India plane crash was examining certain components of the aircraft and assessing various aspects, and "nothing has been ruled out" in terms of the factors that could have led to the accident.
All aspects related to technical, operational, organisational and human factors are being looked into, and it is a very complex process. Certain components of the aircraft are also being examined by AAIB, the source had said.
The Supreme Court, in September last year, termed as "unfortunate and irresponsible" the selective publication of a preliminary report on the June 12 Air India crash, which outlined lapses on the part of pilots and paved the way for a "media narrative".
In August last year, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was one of the pilots of the ill-fated Air India Dreamliner, demanded a 'formal investigation' by the central government.
In a letter to the civil aviation secretary and AAIB Director General, 91-year-old Pushkaraj had said that selective leaks about the accident have led to speculation that Sumeet (56) was under tremendous psychological pressure and, therefore, was contemplating committing suicide.
