With the deadly Air India flight crash claiming 270 lives in Ahmedabad last week, an investigation report claiming to be published by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has gone viral. However, the report doing rounds on social media has been found to be fake.
The fake report claimed that the flight crash involving Air India's AI 171 aircraft was caused by a double engine failure. The report was fact-checked by the Press Information Bureau's fact-checking unit.
🚨 Stay alert
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 16, 2025
A message circulating on #WhatsApp claims to be the preliminary investigation report of the AI-171 crash by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)
🔍#PIBFactCheck:
❌ This message is completely Fake.
✈️ This report has not been issued by the Aircraft… pic.twitter.com/ZyBDt7cMKd
There were other factual errors in the findings report, including mistakenly saying the doomed flight was headed to London's Heathrow airport. The flight was actually bound for the Gatwick airport in London.
Meanwhile, the AAIB is currently investigating the cause of the crash and has not released any official report regarding the same. The authorities have recovered both the black boxes. One of them will reveal the flight data while the other has the voice recorder. Boeing as well as investigation teams from the US and the UK are also probing the incident.
The final words of the pilots could bring more clarity to what happened before the crash. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal sent a mayday call seconds after the flight took off from the runway.
DNA tests have identified at least 87 victims as on Monday and 47 of these bodies were handed over to their families. Among the victims were 241 people aboard the aircraft while one passenger survived the crash miraculously. Besides, 29 people who were on the ground were also killed in the crash.
