AAIB Promises Supreme Court Draft Report on Air India Crash in Ahmedabad by October

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has informed the Supreme Court of India that the draft final investigation report into the June 12, 2025, Air India Flight 171 crash in Ahmedabad is expected to be ready by October. This marks the third rescheduled timeline for the probe report in 13 months, highlighting ongoing delays in meeting international accident investigation standards.

The crash of Flight 171 in Ahmedabad claimed 260 lives. Under Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, which governs international aircraft accident investigations, states are expected to release a final report as soon as possible, ideally within one year of the accident.

The AAIB released a preliminary report in July 2025, within 30 days of the crash. The preliminary report revealed that seconds after take-off, the aircraft's fuel-control switches were moved to "cut-off," starving both engines. Cockpit voice recordings captured one pilot asking the other why he had done it, which the other pilot denied.

A second timeline was set on May 8, 2026, when Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu stated that the investigation was in its final stages and the report would be submitted within a month. However, the AAIB missed this deadline, releasing only an interim update on the anniversary of the crash.

This week, in response to a petition filed by the father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the senior pilot who died in the crash, the AAIB presented the new October timeline to the Supreme Court. The bureau stated it is currently in the "analysis phase" and has completed 49 of the 66 mandated investigative steps.

According to the AAIB's affidavit, intense media speculation blaming the pilots made witnesses, including colleagues and crew members, "restrictive and non-responsive" out of fear of feeding a suicide narrative. The Supreme Court previously termed the preliminary report's framing of the fuel-cutoff incident as "unfortunate."

Once the draft final report is ready in October, it must be circulated to international stakeholders, including the United States—home to aircraft manufacturer Boeing and engine-maker GE—and the United Kingdom, which lost 52 citizens in the crash. These stakeholders will have 60 days to comment before the final report can be publicly released, making it unlikely that the final document will be published this year.