The frightening thing is that we have no idea what happened

Because this column is about the tragic Air India crash at Ahmedabad airport I want to begin with some qualifications before we go much further.

I am, by no means, an aviation expert. But then, nor are 95 per cent of the people who have commented on the crash/ assigned blame to individuals/ told us that they know what REALLY happened / have rubbished Air India, etc.

 

My only qualification for writing about this subject is that I put my life on the line around twice every week. That’s how many flights I take, the vast majority of them on Air India. So if air travel (especially on Boeing aircraft or on Air India) is so susceptible to random tragedies then I have a personal interest in knowing what actually happened.

 

   But here’s the problem: even with the passage of days and the publication of an inquiry report into the crash, I am more confused than before.

 

   Here’s what worries me:

 

1. The interim inquiry report tells us that the crash was caused by the denial of fuel to the engines of the aircraft. It says that the switches that control the fuel supply were switched off and then on. But by the time the pilots tried to resume the fuel supply it was too late and the aircraft crashed.

 

2. Further, says the report, the pilots noticed that the fuel supply had been cut. It quotes a snatch of cockpit conversation in which one pilot asks the other if he cut off the supply. No, says the pilot, he did not.

 

3. Even before this report was released and before the Indian people, at whose expense and in whose name the inquiry was conducted, had a chance to see it, either the whole report or at the very least, portions of it were leaked to the foreign media. Who leaked it? Why? Has there been an investigation into the leak? Not only do we not have answers to those questions it does not look like we will get any. What does this failure tell us about India’s aviation authority? Or about the integrity of the whole process? You can draw your own conclusions.

 

4. The people the report was leaked to clearly circulated it to Western media with their own interpretation. That interpretation was, to put it crudely, ‘these stupid Indian pilots screwed up by putting off the fuel switch. There was nothing wrong with the plane. It was the pilots who erred.’

 

5. With some notable exceptions (who were more circumspect) the rest of the Western media had a clear run with this it-was-the-stupid-Indians-who-crashed-the-plane interpretation for three clear days. The report was rumoured to be ready on a Monday. On Tuesday the first the-pilots-did-it stories appeared in the Western media. After this version had a free run in the world’s press the government of India finally released the report one night under cover of darkness.

 

"Just as it is wrong to blame pilots without proper evidence it would be wrong to put the blame on Boeing before conclusive evidence surfaces."

6. No press conference accompanied the release. No explanations were offered. In fact the report stated that it had no recommendations for the manufacturers of the aircraft or its engine. This was widely and not unreasonably interpreted to mean the plane and the engines had played no role in the crash.

 

7. The general conclusion, led by the Western media who had access to the leaked report was that it was pilot error. And to our eternal shame, news channels and social media in India also ran with this interpretation.

 

8. In fact the report does not blame the pilots. And you could argue that the snatch of cockpit conversation quoted in the report actually exonerated them: they were surprised by the stop in fuel supply and denied having had anything to do with it.

 

9. Obviously it is wrong to blame pilots who had hours of experience and impeccable records only because they are not alive to defend themselves. But the it-was-the-pilots theory also severely damages the reputation of Air India. Would international travellers want to travel by an airline that employs such incompetent pilots?

 

10. Pilot associations in India and abroad have justifiably complained about the spin given to the report but not enough people have asked the big question: shouldn’t action be taken against the officials who leaked the report to interested parties and brought Indian pilots, aviation and Air India into such disrepute? Is this not a firing offence?

 

11. From the passenger perspective we still don’t know how to respond. Could the pilots have put the fuel switches off and on by mistake? It seems more and more unlikely. Apparently it is not a matter of flipping a switch. It is a process that involves several stages. We are being asked to believe that the pilots were able to put both switches off and then on again and then try to stabilise the aircraft: all this in the space of the 30 seconds or so that the aircraft was in air. I imagine it is possible but it does seem unlikely.

 

12. There is the other explanation that is now turning up on social media: they did it on purpose. I won’t dignify this with too much comment except to say that there is nothing in the record of either man to suggest that he would commit mass murder. And even if you take the line that one of them was suicidal (for which there is no evidence) why do it this way? There are easier ways of killing yourself.

 

13. So what did happen? The frightening thing is that we have no idea. It’s possible that there was a fault in the fuel valve or that the switch was defective and indeed there have been reports of such problems on other aircraft. But the report dismisses these possibilities and gives a clean chit to the aircraft and its equipment.

 

14. I don’t want to do what Western media have done and find a scapegoat but from the time the aircraft went down questions have been asked about Boeing. In recent years Boeing has seen its reputation trashed by suggestions that it took short cuts to save money, and increase profits. The company is still recovering from the scandal of the unsafe MAX aircraft and its senior executives have been hauled up and humiliated before US Congressional committees. Should any aspect of the crash be linked to a failure on the part of Boeing it would set the company into a tailspin from which it might never recover.

 

15. So did Boeing leak the report and advance the blame-the-pilots interpretation? God knows it has enough money to influence the media and buy off Indian officials.

 

16. Except that I am not going to play that game. Just as it is wrong to blame pilots without proper evidence it would be wrong to put the blame on Boeing before conclusive evidence surfaces.

 

17. Which leaves us passengers where we started. A plane crashed in mysterious circumstances. All we know is that an interim inquiry was twisted into an effort to crucify two dead pilots. Is it any safer to fly now? Can we be sure it won’t happen again? We have no answers.