Air India marred by flight disruptions in crash aftermath – DW – 06/18/2025
Indian air carrier Air India is facing pressure, as the country's regulator ordered checks on its Boeing 787 aircraft, the same that was involved in a major fatal crash last week.
The London-bound Air India flight crashed during take-off in the city of Ahmedabad, killing at least 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew.
What caused the Air India crash?
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What do we know about the cancellations?
A total of 83 wide-body flights, including 66 flights involving the Boeing Dreamliner, have been canceled, according to data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation safety regulator.
"There is a cascading impact operationally. We are being extra cautious and doing extra checks beyond the usual," a company executive familiar with the matter told the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity.
In addition to the inspections, the closure of airspace in some Middle Eastern countries, as a result of the conflict between Israel and Iran, have crippled Air India's domestic and international operations.
Initial checks on Air India's Boeing dreamliner fleet "did not reveal any major safety concerns," the country's regulator said late Tuesday.
"The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards," officials added.
Over 200 victims identified
The airline has tried to reassure passengers, while the search for the cause of the crash in Ahmedabad is underway by experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, with assistance from the UK, the US and Boeing.
Investigators are currently retrieving vital information from both black boxes that were recovered from the site, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
A single passenger survives Air India plane crash
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Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it crashed moments after takeoff, leaving what witnesses said were badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.
Indian authorities said Wednesday that more than 200 victims of the Ahmedabad crash have been identified through DNA testing.
The announcement was welcome news for many victims' family members, many of whom have been providing DNA samples to help identify their loved ones.
"As of 2 pm, 202 DNA [samples] have been matched," Harsh Sanghavi, home minister of Ahmedabad's Gujarat state, wrote on X.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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