Air India Puts Conditions For The Final Compensation Money To Ahmedabad Crash Victims

New Delhi: Air India has initiated the process for providing final compensation to the families of those who died in the Amhedabad-London AI-171 plane crash in June 2025. 

However, the airline has put out a condition, saying that those willing to accept the amounts have to ensure that they will not make any future claims against the airline, original equipment manufacturers and government agencies in relation to the fatal accident. The Air India Dreamliner crash led to the death of 260 people on board and had only one survivor.

The Fuel Switch Controversy

The condition comes amid the controversy about fuel switches which, according to preliminary investigations, had flipped almost simultaneously, moments before the crash. It should be noted that the these switches regulate the fuel flow into a plane's engines and are used by pilots to start or shut down engines on the ground or to manually shut down or restart engines when an engine failure occurs during a flight.

Just recently, Air India completed precautionary re-inspections of its Fuel Control Switches (FCS) across all the operational Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet, and identified no issues during these checks. The inspections, the second one after the crash, were undertaken after an observation reported by one of its pilots.

This came after a polit reported malfunction of the fuel cut-off switch on Air India Boeing B787-8 after the flight from London to Bengaluru landed on February 2, 2026. Following this incident, the airline briefly grounded the aircraft to carry out further checks.

What The DGCA Said

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country's airline regulator, also released a rejoinder regarding the purported malfunction of the fuel cut-off switch on Air India Boeing B787-8 aircraft and stated that external force was applied in the wrong direction, which resulted in the switch go from "RUN to CUTOFF".

"Both left and right switches were checked and found satisfactory, with the locking tooth/pawl fully seated and not slipping from RUN to CUTOFF. When full force was applied parallel to the base plate, the switch remained secure. However, applying external force in an incorrect direction caused the switch to move easily from RUN to CUTOFF, due to the angular base plate allowing slip when pressed improperly with finger or thumb," the rejoinder said.

Concerns Remain

Following the February 2 incident, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) President Captain CS Randhawa had urged the DGCA and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to immediately investigate possible electrical faults in Boeing 787 aircraft. He cited repeated incidents involving uncommanded movement of fuel control switches.

What the Supreme Court Said

The Supreme Court directed the central government to file within 3 weeks a report on the procedural protocol followed to enquire into the tragic accident. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant also suggested not to be swayed by media reports on technical glitches in aircrafts.

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