The Legal Turbulences Behind the Air India Crash

***This article has been selected for LegalOnus Law Journal (LLJ) Volume 1 Issue 8 2025

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Introduction

This catastrophic event has deeply affected the entire nation and the families of the victims. On Thursday, June 12th, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members took off at 1:38 PM IST from Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport in Ahmedabad. Tragically, the aircraft crashed, resulting in the fatalities of all but one person on board, with a total of 241 onboard casualties. Additionally, there were 28 deaths and 60 injuries on the ground, with the numbers still being assessed; approximately 269 fatalities have been reported.

This tragedy has profoundly affected the nation and the families of the victims. On Thursday, June 12th, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, departed at 1:38 PM IST from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, with 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 1 Canadian national, and 7 Portuguese nationals on board. Unfortunately, the aircraft experienced a catastrophic failure, resulting in the loss of all but one individual on board, totaling 241 casualties. Additionally, there were 28 fatalities and 60 injuries reported on the ground, and the numbers are still being calculated, with approximately 269 total casualties reported.

The flight was intended for London’s Gatwick Airport and was piloted by Captain Sumeet Bharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, alongside Co-Pilot Clive Kunder, who had 1,100 hours of flying experience. Tragically, the plane crashed near the BJ Medical College canteen, where numerous individuals were dining at the time of the incident. It was in route to London’s Gatwick Airport, piloted by Captain Sumeet Bharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, and co-piloted by Clive Kunder, who had 1,100 hours of flying experience. The plane met a devastating crash near the BJ Medical College canteen, where many individuals were having lunch at the time of the incident.

Legal liability, accountability, and regulatory oversight of Indian Civil Aviation

The Aircraft Act, 1934, and the Aircraft Rules, 1937.[i] These are the primary laws governing civil aviation in India. This grants the Central Government broad powers to regulate the maintenance of aircraft and their equipment. This includes the ability to establish rules for inspection, license personnel involved in maintenance, and certify aircraft components. Investigators from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) employed various tools to examine the wreckage. This included cutting into the cockpit floor to retrieve the black boxes and analyzing the aircraft’s systems and components for potential malfunctions. Many equipment will help us unravel the pivotal cause behind this mega disaster, one of the major equipment is Black Boxes (Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder). This equipment helps in collating information and data, for example, the Flight Data Recorder records all technical parameters, and the Cockpit Voice Recorder captures pilot conversations and cockpit sounds.

Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017[ii]govern the modus operandi of investigation after an airplane crash or an unfortunate accident. DG, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has extensive jurisdiction over the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct searches and analyze different causes that might be pilot distress or equipment failure. This statute is also corroborated by the ICAO Annex 13[iii] obligations, which underlie standards and procedures after an airplane accident and incident investigation. Now, after all these horrifying happening, we will see a load of lawsuits on DGCA, AAIB, and Ahmedabad Airport with its ownership companies like Tata Sons via its subsidiary Talace Private Limited which was transferred on 27 January 2022, which has 74.9% ownership of Air India and the rest is with Singapore Airlines which is 25.1%[iv].The first ones to be held accountable will be the DGCA, as this was a failure to comply with mandated regulations and negligence on the part of the on-ground crew support, and violations of SOPs. In the aftermath of this incident, these authorities might face potential litigation under tort and product liability law, as well as scrutiny under international aviation treaties like the Montreal Convention, 1999[v]. The Montreal Convention 1999 lays down the liability of airlines resulting in the death, injury, or major loss of the passenger.

Who is the real culprit?

Hitherto, there is no major entity or individual behind this. We might see the main man or entity behind this gruesome mistake as investigation by AAIB, NDRF, SDRF, and police proceeds, but we can have a rough skeletal idea about who was involved at a macro point of view. One of the major concerns when such a disaster appears in our mind is the level of stress or medical complications on the pilot. Let’s analyze this aspect, as per DGCA Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) from January 2024, pilots are entitled to: minimum 48 hrs. weekly rest up from 36 hours, in march 2024 the DGCA penalized Air India ₹8 million for breaking these guidelines but wait if these highly experienced pilots were to be taken bone-weary this incident would’ve occurred at the middle of the flight hours not at the starting but lets say this is just an assumption, Financial Times reported that the aircraft “lost its signal at 1:38 pm local time after issuing a mayday call’’[vi]This inference is that the pilots were on high alert and no problem from their side, hence the chances of them being accountable are frequently less. As we can see that on the OTTs, there is a controversy that Dreamliner was maintained by Turkish Technic (a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines), suggesting that faulty maintenance caused the crash. Anadolu Agency’s Fact‑Check Line confirmed the crashed aircraft was a Boeing 787‑8, while Turkish Technic only services Boeing 777s under its agreement with Air India—no 787s were involved[vii]. Now things come down to who was responsible for maintaining the hardware and equipment of the Air India fleet, Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) is responsible for maintenance of the Air India, Heavy maintenance (C/D checks) for wide‑body jets—including the 787‑8—is sometimes done offshore, such as in Abu Dhabi and Singapore[viii]. Boeing Global Services is involved in the supply of major components and parts, reiterating the following AIESL is primarily responsible, and if not, then it has the most responsibility in mishandling of the equipment and disregarding DGCA rules, Turkish Technic had no role in this it is a misinformation not to be followed while for the components of the plane BGS comes under conjecturing radar.  The Aircraft Act, 1934, grants the legal authority for safety checks of airworthiness certification and operations checks; however, DGCA relegates this authority to the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME), while there is a clear violation of DGCA Maintenance standards, but it was the duty of (AME) to implement and execute these statutory laws. The pilot in control of this plane also had one option that shouldn’t go unnoticed, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had 1,25,000 litres of fuel so was it possible for the pilot to follow fuel dumping protocol as this process would have mitigated the impact and injuries on both the crew and passengers in the plane and on-ground casualties. This fuel dumping system is called the fuel jettison system, which is used when there is an emergency landing to prevent the plane from maximum damage and lighten the weight of the plane, and protect the lives in the plane. If logically speaking, spraying such an amount of fuel on such a densely populated area would’ve expedited the catastrophic losses, there are some rules and regulations for the pilot to use this system. The first rule is that the plane should have attained more than 6000 feet in minimum altitude, which war far-fetched from the actual altitude gained by the Dreamliner liner negating this rule. The second rule is that where the fuel is to be dumped should be non-populated airspace, but unfortunately, in this case, it was above the Meghani area, which is densely populated, and hence, violating this rule again. The last rule, which elucidates the first rule, is that the altitude should be such that after dumping the fuel, the fuel should evaporate in the surrounding which was not possible as the Dreamliner could not attain that height, hence the pilot made the right call by not using this system as the place above which this airline was flying was very populated and active at the time which could have strengthen the aftermath effects of the crash. After the thorough and detailed investigative analysis, it is obvious that there was no error on the pilot’s side. It is subtly very wrong what social media gurus are claiming that it was a grievous mistake of the pilots, which is completely false, as such senior pilots with thousands of flying hours under their belts committing such a mistake is a very minor reason for this crash. Out of all the elements analysed, the most probable cause of this incident is AIESL’s lackadaisical maintenance of the flight and disregard for the rules set by DGCA.

Conclusion

In the wake of June 12, 2025, the nation witnessed one of the deadliest and rarest plane crashes in world history. This serves as a stark reminder of the mistakes the aviation industry is repeating; a similar incident occurred with Air India Express Flight 812 (Mangalore) in 2010, where pilot fatigue, poor management of resources, and inadequate DGCA oversight contributed to the disaster. Lessons from failures in the international aviation industry should also be firmly considered when applying statutory laws. For example, Bhoja Air Flight 213 (Pakistan) in 2012 was cleared to fly despite bad weather and machinery abnormalities, while the conditions in our case are similar, but the latter reason applies best. Laws, whether constitutional or statutory, should align with international laws; only then can we ensure the effective application of our executive, legislative, and judicial systems. One more pivotal and salient point to note is that in the aftermath of this grave crash, many doctors and passengers lost their lives, shattering many families. Historically, our response to disasters has involved playing blame games among different political parties, overshadowing the most critical areas requiring immediate action. Every issue of utmost pivotal importance has become a social media trend and an opportunity for a vote bank for political parties. Issues come by and are forgotten in some weeks for example the Atul Subhash case, the Kolkata rape case, the RCB stampede case, will the people of this country the choosers of governments consent to this type of ignorance shown by them or they choose to be gritter in raising their voices against injustice and pressurize the government, capitalistic giants to take responsibility of the lethargy shown by their side and be visible in the steps they take for general public and the families of victims. Our educational system teaches our future generations history so that our future generations can prevent themselves from doing those dark mistakes which happened in our history let us ensure that this incident gets etched in our history, and for us let this be a present mistake for our future. We must ask ourselves how many lives we are willing to lose in the name of politics.

[i] https://www.dgca.gov.in/digigov-portal/?DynamicPage=aircraftRules1937/1

[ii] https://www.dgca.gov.in/digigov-portal/?DynamicPage=aircraftRules1937/1;

[iii] https://www.icao.int/Meetings/anconf12/Document%20Archive/an13_cons%5B1%5D.pdf

[iv] https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/why-tata-sons-nbfc-status-is-a-regulatory-ticking-bomb-124052000236_1.html

[v] https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%202242/v2242.pdf

[vi] https://www.ft.com/content/0f1196c5-c656-4804-b84d-cc5225b4939f

[vii] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/claim-linking-air-india-crash-to-turkish-technic-maintenance-false/3595612

[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_in_India