Investigation into cause of Air India crash ongoing, officials say

The investigation into the Air India crash which left 260 people dead is ongoing with the final report to be "released upon [its] completion", India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has said on the first anniversary of the disaster.

The statement said "significant progress" had been made, in particular to "the examination and analysis of aircraft systems, flight recorder data, engine-related components, maintenance and operational records".

But it did not give a date for the investigation's completion.

The exact cause of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad en route to London on 12 June 2025 has been the subject of widespread speculation.

A preliminary report, published on 12 July last year, found that just seconds after take-off, fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss.

Audio recordings from the cockpit captured one pilot asking the other why he had done it, with the other replying that he had not. Investigators did not identify which pilot made either statement.

Days after the release of the preliminary report last year, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters news agency reported that new details in the investigation were shifting attention towards the senior pilot in the cockpit - Capt Sabharwal.

"A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight" that crashed last year supports the view that the "captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines", the Reuters report said, citing unnamed sources.

The media reports prompted a strong backlash from pilots' associations in India, which criticised the coverage and rejected suggestions that the senior pilot had caused the crash, as well as the AAIB.