A year ago, 242 people boarded a flight to London.
Only one walked away.
Today, nearly 30 families of the Air India AI-171 victims are done waiting quietly.
They've written directly to the aviation minister.
And what they're asking for should worry more than just Air India.
June 12, 2025.
Ahmedabad.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner goes down seconds after takeoff, straight into a medical college hostel.
241 on board. 19 on the ground. Gone.
One of India's worst aviation disasters in decades.
More than a year later, the families still don't have a final answer.
The letter isn't emotional venting. It's a checklist.
📅 A firm timeline for the final investigation report
🔁 Updates from AAIB every 15-30 days
🛩️ An experienced Boeing 787 pilot added to the probe team
🖥️ Independent full-flight simulator tests
✍️ Protection from compensation waivers that quietly sign away legal rights
Read that last one again.
Here's the twist that should stop you mid-scroll.
While grieving families were still burying their dead, some were reportedly handed compensation forms.
Forms that asked them to waive legal rights.
Not just against Air India.
But against Boeing, GE Aerospace, Safran and Honeywell too.
Before the final report even exists.
The families are refusing to sign away justice for a payout.
The preliminary report leaned toward pilot error.
But the Federation of Indian Pilots — representing over 6,000 pilots — ran its own Level-D simulator tests.
Their finding: the plane's emergency generator (the RAT) needs 10 to 14 seconds after engine failure to kick in hydraulic power.
That detail alone could rewrite the entire sequence of events.
Which is exactly why the families want it verified independently, before conclusions get locked in.
The AAIB says the final report lands only after every international review wraps up — likely late 2026.
But the families aren't asking for a quick answer.
They're asking for the right one.
"We have already lost our loved ones," the letter says.
"We only seek the truth."
A year on, that's still the one thing no one has handed them.
That's all for now!
