Air India plane crash latest: Investigators find emergency power likely came on before crash as 66 Dreamliner flights cancelled – UK Times

Air India is cutting its international widebody operations by 15 per cent for a few weeks due to safety inspections and disruptions following the deadly crash of flight AI171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that killed 241 people on board.

So far, 26 of the airline’s 33 Dreamliners have been cleared after inspection.

The airline, owned by the Tata Group, said the reductions will remain in place through at least mid-July to maintain operational stability, improve efficiency, and reduce passenger inconvenience.

Air India added that inspections of the remaining aircraft will be carried out in the coming days, with further checks also scheduled for its Boeing 777 fleet.

Air India also attributed the recent wave of flight cancellations, 83 in the past six days, to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and night curfews affecting several European and East Asian airspaces, Reuters reported.

The family of 25-year-old Faizan Rafik, a British man feared to be on the Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, is still awaiting official confirmation of his fate.

Despite providing DNA days ago, they’ve received no updates, leaving them in distress and without guidance, the BBC reported.

Rafik was returning to the UK after visiting his wife in Gujarat. His cousin has called for more support from UK authorities and expressed frustration at the lack of communication from both Indian and British officials.

Sameer Rafik, his cousin told the outlet that his family had been left “completely stuck” and that they “don’t know what to do”.

The crash killed 241 of 242 on board, including 53 Britons.

Mr Rafik said: “There’s no update on him, we don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

“We are still hoping to hear some good news from India but unfortunately we aren’t getting any update from anywhere.“Faizan’s dad was asked to give DNA – it’s been more than four days now. We were supposed to have heard from the hospital by Monday but we haven’t heard anything.

“We need to get some update about my brother. Was he there in the flight crash? If he wasn’t on the flight where is he? If he is on the flight then what’s the condition of the body?”

He added: “We haven’t had anything from the UK or India – it feels like he was the one paying tax to this country and the government doesn’t bother about the person who has died.

People hold candles as they take part in a special prayer ceremony for the victims of an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane, which crashed during take-off from an airport, in Ahmedabad, India, 17 June 2025

“It feels very awful. He’s nothing to the government – just a piece of paper, feels like tearing it up and throwing it in the bin.

“We don’t know what to do because we’re completely blank. We need some kind of support from someone, we need a guide about what to do but we don’t have that at the moment.”

Investigators looking into the deadly crash of Air India Flight 171, which claimed over 270 lives, have found that the aircraft’s emergency power system was likely activated shortly before impact.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this could point to a possible engine or hydraulic failure during takeoff, an extremely rare but serious issue in commercial aviation.

However, investigators have not yet confirmed what triggered the emergency system, the report said, citing sources familiar with the inquiry.

The flight, which had been bound for London Gatwick, came down shortly after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad. According to Flightradar24, the aircraft departed at 08:08:44 GMT (1.38pm local time) from runway 23 and climbed only a few hundred feet before crashing less than a minute later.

With speculation rife about the cause of the disaster, Indian safety experts have been joined by teams from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to work out what happened as the disaster on flight AI171 unfolded.

Read more by Simon Calder here:

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot for Air India, is being hailed as a hero for diverting his falling plane away from a densely populated area near Ahmedabad airport, potentially saving hundreds of lives.

Air India flight AI171, bound for London Gatwick, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew, as well as at least 29 people on the ground, including medical students.

Locals believe Mr Sabharwal deliberately steered the Boeing 787 Dreamliner away from their apartment building.

In a 13 June memo titled “Updating Airport Emergency Plan” and reviewed by Reuters, India’s aviation authorities instructed all government-managed airports to conduct a full-scale emergency training exercise on 30 June.

These drills, which simulate crisis scenarios such as crashes or large-scale evacuations, are a standard component of airport preparedness and safety protocols.

The directive came in the wake of the deadly Air India crash on 12 June in Ahmedabad, which claimed 241 lives onboard and killed several more on the ground.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the first truly 21st-century big jet. More than 1,000 are in service, and many passengers rate it more highly than other aircraft.

The carbon-fibre twin-engined 787 was designed partly as a replacement for Boeing’s veteran 767 – but also to introduce passenger-friendly benefits such as larger windows and higher cabin pressure.

The Dreamliner was also accountant-friendly, burning about one-fifth less fuel than the 767, and allowed airlines’ network planners to dream of ultra-long routes. The daily Qantas nonstop between London Heathrow and Perth in Western Australia, covering over 9,000 miles, is a doddle for a suitably configured 787.

Read more by Simon Calder here:

As families wait for DNA tests to confirm the identities of their loved ones who perished in the Air India crash, harrowing stories emerge from the decade’s worst aviation disaster. Namita Singh reports from Ahmedabad:

Aryan Asari, a 17-year-old airplane enthusiast, was filming from his father’s terrace in Ahmedabad when he witnessed and recorded the horrific Air India Dreamliner crash that killed 241 onboard and nearly 30 on the ground.

A lifelong fan of planes, Aryan was excited to see aircraft up close during his first visit to the city. But the trauma of watching the plane spiral and explode has left him deeply shaken.

“I saw the plane. It was going down and down. Then it wobbled and crashed right before my eyes,” he told the BBC.

His video became crucial to investigators and went viral.“My son is so scared that he has stopped using his phone,” his father, Maganbhai Asari, told the outlet.

Aryan is now trying to recover from the emotional impact, but his father fears he may never look at planes the same way again.

“This was Aryan’s first time in Ahmedabad. Actually, it was the first time in his life that he left the village,” Mr Asari said.

Retired army soldier Mr Asari now lives alone in a modest rooftop room near Ahmedabad airport, while his wife and two children remain in their ancestral village on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.

“Whenever I’d call, Aryan would ask if I could spot aeroplanes from our terrace and I would tell him you could see hundreds of them streaking the sky.”

The family had been swamped with interview requests after the viral video, and Aryan had a traumatic experience dealing with all that.

“My son was so disturbed by then that we decided to send him back to the village.”

Aryan has now resumed school but is “still not feeling like himself. His mother tells me that every time his phone rings, he gets scared”, Mr Asari said.

“I know he will be fine with time. But I don’t think my son will try looking for airplanes in the sky again.”

New Air India footage shows plane taking off and crashing moments later

The aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel in a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board.

Relatives of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa, who died in the crash, said they felt “utterly abandoned” by the UK Government and called for more support on the ground in India.