Air India’s Boeing plane was “well-maintained” before it crashed a week ago, killing all but one of 242 people on board, the airline said on Thursday.
Several Indian media outlets had launched a disinformation campaign after the crash falsely linking Turkish Technic—a prominent Türkiye-based aircraft maintenance provider—to the incident.
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Some posts, including those shared by national television channels, falsely claimed that Turkish Technic had performed maintenance on the crashed aircraft, thereby implicating the company without evidence.
Contrary to the reports circulating in the Indian media, the aircraft involved in the crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Turkish Technic, however, only provides base maintenance services for Air India’s Boeing 777 fleet.
Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle to the ground in the western city of Ahmedabad a week ago.
Air India had decided to terminate its aircraft maintenance partnership with Turkish Technic, a global aviation services provider, amid rising geopolitical tensions linked to Türkiye’s support for Pakistan during recent military operations.
Workers wait to clear debris from the crash site of Air India flight 171, outside charred buildings at a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 16, 2025. Indian health officials have begun handing relatives the bodies of their loved ones who were among at least 279 killed in one of the worlds worst plane crashes in decades, but most families were still waiting on June 16 for results of DNA testing. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)
At least 38 people were killed in the residential neighbourhood that the plane hit, causing such devastation that DNA analysts are still trying to identify dozens of the dead.
As investigators attempt to retrieve data from the plane’s black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — the airline said no problems were detected with the jet before the disaster.
“The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023,” Air India said in a statement.
“Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight,” it said.
The London-bound jet burst into a fireball when it smashed down in Ahmedabad moments after takeoff.
Initial checks on Air India’s Dreamliners since the crash “did not reveal any major safety concerns”, the country’s civil aviation regulator said on Tuesday.
India’s aviation investigative unit said on Thursday the probe was “progressing steadily”.
“Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has been completed, and further analysis is now underway,” the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said in a statement.
Relatives carry the coffin of a victim, who was killed in the Air India Flight 171 crash, during a funeral ceremony in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2025. Grieving families held funerals in India on June 15 for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the worlds worst plane crashes in decades. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
The pilots were accomplished flyers, according to the airline.
“The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft,” it said.
“First Officer Clive Kunder had over 3,400 hours of flying experience.”
While investigators try to piece together what went wrong, many families of victims are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.
As of Thursday evening, 215 victims have been matched through DNA testing, all but nine of them passengers, according to the civil hospital’s medical superintendent Rakesh Joshi.
The remains of around 15 of them have been transported by air, Joshi told journalists.
Six people injured in the disaster remain in hospital, with one due to be discharged shortly while the others are in a stable condition.
June 19, 2025 10:50 PM GMT+03:00
