New Delhi : Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu will chair a high-level meeting Saturday on the investigation into the Air India Flight AI171 crash in Ahmedabad. This will be the first meeting at the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Delhi following the disaster, which claimed 265 lives. Senior officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Airports Authority of India (AAI), and MoCA will be present for the huddle at 10:30 a.m.
The minister will review the progress of the probe into the plane crash, with discussions focusing on evidence recovered so far and the next steps in the investigation. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner perished when the plane went down moments after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, ploughing into a hostel building on the campus of BJ Medical College. The crash also claimed the lives of 24 people on the ground, including five medical students.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on Friday that the digital flight data recorder (DFDR), commonly referred to as the black box, was recovered from the rooftop of the hostel. The data will be pivotal in reconstructing the final moments of the flight and identifying the root cause of the tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the accident site and met with injured survivors at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Friday. As experts continue to speculate over the cause of the crash—from dual engine failure, flap malfunction, or bird strikes—aviation authorities have ramped up safety checks.
The death toll from the tragic crash of Air India Flight AI171 has risen to 274, including 33 on-ground fatalities, after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12. The aircraft, bound for London Gatwick, was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. Only one survivor, a British national, remains under treatment.
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