Investigators will miss Friday’s (Jun 12) one-year deadline to explain why an Air India jet crashed because an examination of the Boeing 787 plane’s engines in the United States still needs to be completed, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will likely issue a status report this week focused on the reasons behind the delay, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.
India is expected to cite the need to complete the engine examination as the reason for the delay in issuing a final report, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on the condition of anonymity because the information is not public.
The Air India 787 headed to London crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad on Jun 12, 2025, killing 260 people in the world’s deadliest air disaster in a decade.
A preliminary report released last year showed the 787’s engine fuel control switches moved almost simultaneously from “RUN” to “CUTOFF”, starving both engines of fuel shortly after the flight took off.
A final report is expected within three months, by when studies of the GE Aerospace engines should be concluded, Bloomberg News said, adding that the examination was occurring in the US because there were only a few places globally that had the necessary tools and could dismantle engines properly.
Reuters first reported last month that Indian officials investigating the crash were preparing an interim report rather than a final one ahead of the first anniversary because the investigation was deemed complex and time-consuming.
Under international rules, a final report is due within a year of an accident, but sometimes investigations take longer, so if that is not completed, an interim statement should be issued on each anniversary.
The AAIB, India’s aviation ministry, Air India, the US National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing and GE Aerospace did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The crash hit Air India at a sensitive stage of its post-privatisation turnaround, which has been slowed by supply-chain snags, the Iran war and an airspace ban imposed by Pakistan on Indian carriers.
