A year ago today, the wreckage of Air India flight AI-101 lay strewn across a rain-soaked field outside Mumbai. Eleven passengers and crew lost their lives. Forty-two were injured. The nation mourned. Yet as the anniversary dawns, the families of the dead are still waiting for answers. Six questions, in particular, refuse to go away.
First: why did the Boeing 787-9 stall on final approach? The preliminary report from India’s civil aviation ministry cites “erratic airspeed indications” and a possible bird strike. But survivors and ground observers describe a sudden, sickening drop that no mechanical failure alone can explain. Union representatives at Air India have told me that pilots raised concerns about the aircraft’s flight control software months before the crash. Those warnings were ignored.
Second: was the cockpit crew hampered by fatigue and poor rostering? The cockpit voice recorder captured sounds of heavy breathing and muttered expletives in the final seconds. Industry insiders point to a growing crisis of pilot exhaustion, with 14-hour duty days becoming routine. The accident happened at 6.47pm local time. The captain had been on duty since 5am. That is not a schedule designed for safety.
Third: why did emergency services take 27 minutes to reach the site? The crash zone lies less than three miles from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Yet ambulances and fire crews struggled through gridlocked streets. Local residents dragged survivors from the burning fuselage with their bare hands. The official inquiry has so far produced no explanation for the delay.
Fourth: who authorised the removal of cockpit door reinforcements? An anonymous whistleblower inside Air India’s engineering division claims that a cost-cutting directive stripped the flight deck of ballistic panels six months before the crash. The airline denies this. The manufacturer has not commented. But if true, it would mean the crew had less protection from debris on impact.
Fifth: why has the final report been delayed four times? The inquiry was supposed to conclude within six months. Then nine. Now twelve. The aviation regulator blames “complexity”. The families smell a cover-up. “They want us to forget,” says Meena Sharma, whose husband was the first officer. “But we will not forget.”
Finally, the question that hangs over every other: will anyone be held accountable? In the past year, Air India has changed ownership, sacked its safety chief and retired its entire fleet of 787s. Not a single manager has faced disciplinary action. Not a single policy has been revised. The crash is simply another cost of doing business.
For the families, there is only silence. For the workers, there is only fear. For an industry that promised to learn from tragedy, there is only the sound of a gavel that never falls.
One year on, six questions remain. The real economy that flies every day deserves better.
