New Delhi: One year ago today, Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick, crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground – India’s deadliest aviation disaster in decades. A year on, with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s final report still awaited, a new nationwide survey by LocalCircles shows that the tragedy has left a lasting imprint on how Indians fly: 3 in 10 airline travellers say they now check the aircraft type before booking or travelling, and a similar proportion believe airlines have been cutting corners on safety.
The intervening year has given fliers little reason to relax. In February 2026, another Air India Boeing 787’s fuel control switch reportedly moved to ‘CUTOFF’ twice during engine start-up at Heathrow – an unsettling echo of the AI171 preliminary findings – while a SpiceJet Delhi-Leh flight returned with an engine snag and an IndiGo aircraft clipped an Air India plane while taxiing at Mumbai. In April, a SpiceJet aircraft struck a stationary Akasa Air plane at Delhi’s Terminal 1. May brought an emergency slide evacuation of an IndiGo flight in Chandigarh after a power bank fire, and a full emergency at Delhi airport after an engine fire warning on an Air India flight from Bengaluru. The DGCA’s own audit of 754 commercial aircraft found 377 – exactly half – with recurring technical defects.
12/06/2026 Wire
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