Confusion surrounds Air India as crash dents national pride

Before one of his planes crushed just after takeoff last month, killing at least 260 people, Air India had been a symbol of the country’s world rise.

Two years earlier, CEO Campbell Wilson had inaugurated a brand new Airbus A350, the first in Air India, calling it “a statement of resurgence of Indian aviation on the world stage”.

The delivery of the plane made the headlines across the country, where the public applauded the transformation of Air India from a neglected flagship transporter in a modern airline that its new owners, the Tata group, hoped to become the largest in the world.

Under the Indian conglomerate, which founded the airline in 1932 and bought it in 2022 after spending decades under the government operation, Air India has taken great steps, announcing a record order in 2023 of 470 planes worth more than $ 70 billion.

A year later, the airline said that it had started a renovation of $ 400 million in its inherited fleet, accelerating upgrade by renting jets from other airlines, including Delta.

This momentum succeeded in a stop last month when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed a few seconds after takeoff in the northwest city of Ahmedabad India, killing every 242 people except one on board more on the ground in one of the worst aeronautical disasters of India.

Air India has since been subjected to immense pressure to answer the accident, but the bereaved families found themselves with more questions after the investigators published a preliminary report this month which indicated that the aircraft fuel switches had been wrongly, leading to speculations according to which one of the pilots could have done it accidentally or even intentionally.

Indian investigators and the National Transportation Safety Board, which is involved in the investigation into the accident, as the plane is made in the United States, these conclusions were irresponsible.

“The surveys on this magnitude take time,” said NTSB president Jennifer Homendy, while the India’s plane accident investigation office urged the public and the media to “refrain from spreading premature stories”.

But Indian commentators were already furious.

“Why did this rumor go up on possible problems with the pilot?” Arnab Goswami, an anchor of shooting brands, said on its media network of the Conservative Republic. “So, around the world, the impression goes that Indian pilots cannot fly?”

Captain CS Randhawa, a former Air India and Indian Air Force pilot, said that the suggestion that one of the pilots was able to crush the plane deliberately “demoralized the country’s pilots”.

“All the pilots are in arms, and it is not a good thing. Pilots must fly with this mental attitude,” said Randhawa, who is currently president of the Indian pilot federation at NBC News.

The final report is due next year.

In addition to the lack of clarity, some British families hoping to bury their loved ones have declared that they have received the remains of bad people, according to the Daily Mail, which quoted a lawyer representing them. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that all remains were manipulated with “greatest professionalism” and that it worked closely with the British side to respond to concerns.

Air India was also warned last week by the Indian aviation regulator that he could face by measures to apply more than two dozen security violations of this year and last year, reported Reuters, citing government opinions. They include pilots who do not rest compulsory rest and poor compliance with the simulator training requirements.

The airline, which voluntarily disclosed problems last month, said on Friday that it would respond to the regulator and that it “remains fully determined to ensure the safety of its passengers and its staff”.

Air India was already subjected to enormous pressure to clean its reputation after falling into ruins during its almost 70 years of ownership of the government. His reform was nevertheless perfectly aligned with the nationalist account of Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed at transforming India into a global superpower.

“Given its heritage, the brand remains synonymous with India,” said Shelley Vishwajeet, an aviation journalist based in New Delhi and author of “The Indigo Story”, a book on the Indian airline. He added that cultural transformation within Air India “has been a challenge” for its new owners.

Things went quickly after taking control by the Tata group, which consolidated several airlines which it controlled, notably Vistara and Air Asia India, in two entities: the carrier at Air India and its budgetary arm, Air India Express.

Vistara, which partially belonged to Singapore Airlines, was particularly loved by the Indians, known for its modern aircraft and its best class customer experience. When he merged with Air India, the travelers and the crew hoped that AI India would be the real successor of Vistara.

But Air India had trouble making changes as quickly as some hoped.

“They are struggling with maintenance problems, dilapidation problems and all these things take time,” said Randhawa.