Opinion Express View: After the crash

A new bride from Rajasthan’s Balotra district flying to join her husband in London. A Bikaner businessman going to visit, for the first time in a decade, his family settled abroad. A doctor couple and their three young children, en route from Banswara to a much-dreamed-of new life. A 21-year-old flight attendant who belonged to strife-torn Manipur. A former chief minister on his way to visit his daughter. A medical student, in his hostel, eating lunch. They were among the over 240 lives cruelly cut short when a London-bound Air India flight crashed into a residential area in Ahmedabad on Thursday – a British national of Indian origin is the sole survivor. The video, showing the aircraft crashing into the hostel of BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital and exploding into a fireball, will remain scorched into a nation’s memory. The first wide-body aircraft crash of an Indian airline since the 1985 Kanishka bombing leaves behind stories of terrible grief and loss.

The day after, an impartial inquiry — involving Indian authorities, Boeing and international regulators — must be the priority. Till now, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, having flown over one billion passengers since its introduction in 2011, was considered to have a respectable safety record, even though technical issues like engine shutdowns, flight control failures, smoke in cabins and hydraulic leaks were flagged repeatedly. Quality control issues in 2019 forced the company to pause delivery of new aircraft between January 2021 and August 2022. A Boeing engineer filed a whistleblower complaint in 2024 with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), alleging that it took shortcuts in the making of its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets.

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It might take months or even years before the exact causes of the crash in Ahmedabad are ascertained. But even as India mourns, Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation must act with urgency and transparency. Compensation, while necessary, is not a substitute for accountability. The bereaved deserve closure, they must not be left in the dark, as all too often happens in the aftermath of calamities. The disaster should serve as a wake-up call and draw attention to the structural problems that afflict India’s aviation sector. There needs to be a rigorous check of the engineering departments of all Indian airlines. With Air India being one of the two dominant players in the market, there is inadequate pressure to continuously elevate standards of safety and upgrade quality. The DGCA lacks the wherewithal to effectively regulate a growing sector — it was only a few years ago that the aviation watchdog was awarded the power to impose fines on airlines. Aviation consultancy firm Capa India has warned that the shortage of pilots is growing more serious. These gaps must be filled. The investigation of Thursday’s crash will be led by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, with assistance from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA. Every effort must be made to uncover the causes, and to address them. That is the only meaningful tribute to those who boarded Air India Flight 171 but did not reach their destination.