India’s strong aviation standards add to puzzle around plane crash

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20250620 Air India

SOUMYAJIT SAHA

MUMBAI — India’s strong metrics in airline operations and airworthiness are adding to questions surrounding the world’s worst air crash in a decade, as the country awaits the findings of an investigation into the seconds-long flight of Air India 171 that left 270 people dead on June 12.

The investigation is set to focus on the condition and maintenance of parts like the engine, flaps and landing gear, with a preliminary report set to be released within 30 days. The aircraft’s black boxes have been recovered.

India’s solid standing on operational and maintenance metrics means that there is a lack of clear red flags related to the cause of the crash, aviation analysts told Nikkei Asia. Still, they said there is some room for improvement: The country lacks an aviation ombudsman, and the domestic maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) ecosystem is small.

India holds a 94.02% score in operations and a 97.06% score in “airworthiness” — a measurement that includes aircraft condition and maintenance — in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s safety audit list, based on its last assessment of the country in 2022. That was two years after its last major air crash, when a Dubai flight run by an Air India unit skidded off a wet runway in southern India in August 2020, killing 21.

In comparison, China scored 90% and 94.8% in the two metrics, respectively, while the United States scored 86.5% and 89.13%. China and the U.S. were last audited in 2024.

“There are some legacy issues with the likes of Air India … but as the numbers show, I think it is too early to say India is massively lacking in maintenance or other parts of the aviation cycle,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of Singapore-based aviation advisory firm Endau Analytics.

India’s Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, which acquired Air India from the government in 2022, have sought to turn around the airline’s long-standing reputation for poor service and maintenance, an endeavor that has now been set back by the first-ever crash of a Boeing Dreamliner aircraft.

Investigators and regulators will have to dig deep beyond where regular audits have ventured, analysts said. Crew nervousness also seems to have heightened, Yusof said.

Indian authorities on Thursday said they were yet to decide where the ill-fated flight’s recorders would be checked after local media reported that they would be sent to U.S. for examination, Reuters reported.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the aircraft’s emergency power generator, usually auto deployed when both engines fail, was active when the flight crashed. One of the aircraft’s engines was newly installed in March, Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran told a local TV channel earlier this week.

Over the past week, multiple Air India flights connecting Indian cities to Paris, San Francisco and Hong Kong have been canceled or disrupted due to technical snags, while a flight from Thailand landed prematurely after a bomb threat.

India’s aviation watchdog said Tuesday it was conducting an “enhanced safety inspection” of Air India’s 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, with 24 of them having passed the checks as of that day. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also “raised concerns regarding recent maintenance-related issues” with the airline, it said in a statement, without going into specifics.

On Wednesday, Air India said it would reduce international flights using widebody aircraft like the Boeing 787 by 15% over the next few weeks.

Amid increasing regulatory scrutiny, the lack of a strong domestic MRO ecosystem stands out as a major gap in the sector, with Indian carriers often forced to fly out of the country for such services, said Shantanu Gangakhedkar, a Kuala Lumpur-based senior aviation analyst for Frost & Sullivan.

“This not only increases the cost but also increases the time involved in the whole process. … The number of aircraft is increasing faster than the number of available slots [for maintenance], as it takes time to set up and grow MROs,” he added.

Air India and larger rival Indigo have together ordered more than a thousand new aircraft over the past two years, the vast majority of which are yet to be delivered.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country intended to become a $4 billion MRO hub by 2030, in a speech during the International Air Transport Association’s annual general meeting in New Delhi. The Indian industry was worth $1.7 billion in 2021, according to a report by Kearney.

Public concern in the wake of the crash should be used to add momentum to the establishment of a long-anticipated ombudsman for the aviation sector, analysts told Nikkei.

“We should follow best practices set by the likes of Australia. … [We need] a separate entity that can hold airlines as well as the likes of the DGCA and the Airports Authority of India to account,” aviation consultant Gurmukh Singh Bawa said.

Indian aviation regulators themselves are now under scrutiny, aviation analysts said, given the high-profile nature of the accident.

A parliamentary committee report from March had flagged skewed funding distribution between various civil aviation agencies and a large number of vacancies in such agencies.

“The committee is deeply concerned that chronic understaffing in these institutions could undermine safety, security, and service delivery standards, particularly as air traffic volumes continue to rise,” the report added.

The article appeared in the  asia.nikkei

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