Boeing experts and UK and US aviation officials join Air India crash investigation

The Guardian

16 hours ago

A team of Boeing experts has flown out to offer assistance to the state-led investigation into the Air India crash in Ahmedabad, with UK and US officials also arriving in the city.
The unexplained descent of the Boeing 787 plane immediately after takeoff has cast fresh shadows over the US aircraft manufacturer, although the well-established Dreamliner model has been in operation for more than a decade.
Boeing's bosses have pulled out of next week's Paris airshow – traditionally an important shop window for aircraft manufacturers when major orders are announced.
The company's chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, and Stephanie Pope, head of its commercial planes division, told staff in a message on Thursday evening that they had cancelled plans to attend the event 'so we can be with our team and focus on our customer and the investigation'.
In a public statement, Ortberg said the Boeing team 'stands ready to support' the investigation being led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) as work continues to ascertain the cause of the crash.
While issues such as pilot error, maintenance and bird strikes will all be likely avenues of exploration in the eventual investigation, investigators will be looking into what various experts said appeared to be a thrust or engine failure. Footage appeared to show the 787's landing gear apparently unretracted and, according to some accounts, the wing flaps in an unusual position for takeoff.
India's aviation regulator has directed Air India to carry out additional maintenance and safety inspections on its 33-strong remaining Boeing 787 fleet, but not grounded the model.
Boeing said it would defer to India's AAIB in line with the international aviation protocol known as annex 13, which also requires officials from the US to join the investigation due to it being the country of manufacture, and UK investigators due to the number of Britons onboard.
Boeing will be joined by a team from GE Aerospace, which supplied the engines powering flight AI171. GE said it had cancelled a planned investor day next week, coinciding with the Paris show, and would send experts to India to help analyse the data from the 787.
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Hopes that some information on the cause or causes could become available soon were raised by the reported finding of a black box recorder.
Graham Braithwaite, an aviation professor at Cranfield University, said: 'The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will tell us a lot – assuming they are undamaged … and help the industry know how best to react in the short term.'
Critical at this stage of the investigation would be 'making sure they don't lose evidence from the site during recovery efforts, or from the hangar, airport or training records', he said, adding: 'The team can involve specialists from the manufacturer or operator … but under very strict controls to ensure the independence of the investigation.'