Boeing, a target, as Air India crash victims' kin look at legal route in the US

Boeing is the new target, as the kin of Air India's ill-fated Flight AI 171 passengers, look to take their fight to the next level. Lead attorney from the American law firm Beasley Allen has filed a request for access to the flight data recorder (FDR, better known as the ‘Black Box) information of the ill-fated flight from the US’s aviation regulator FAA. A full-fledged case may follow soon.

The request has been filed under America’s Freedom of Information Act for the Black Box data, which has been passed on by India to the US, with the argument that it was not pilot error as hinted in the interim report by Indian authorities, with new evidence claimed to be pointing towards a technical error.

The attorney, Mike Andrews, in an interview with the UK newspaper The Independent, said that the suggestion of ‘self-sabotage’ or gross pilot error was unjust to the dead and not corroborated by proof.

AI 171, scheduled from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed within a minute after take-off on June 12, killing a total of 260 people – all but one passenger on board and scores on the ground at a Medical College, which the aircraft crashed into.

ALSO READ | Ahmedabad plane crash: Air India finds no issues in Boeing 787, 737 fuel control switches

The disaster was the first fatal accident for the 787 Dreamliner plane model, though the fuel-efficient model was dogged by technical glitches throughout its decade-plus time as a long-distance favourite for many airliners, mainly due to its fuel efficiency and ability to fly long distances.

While an interim report released in July hinted at a catastrophic error on the part of one of the pilots in switching off fuel to the engine just before take-off, which could have been the reason for the sudden loss of thrust and immediate crash, the argument of pilots doing something so foolhardy had not found too many takers.

Conspiracy theorists even argued the US may have put pressure on India to point fingers at the pilots, since blaming the plane’s makers, Boeing, a company from Seattle, USA, could have been a blow to Boeing's, and in correlation, America’s, business and future prospects. Especially considering the bad press Boeing had been receiving for the company’s focus on profits instead of engineering excellence, and the resultant 737 Max twin-crashes and the many whistleblower allegations at the going ons within the company.

The legal fight from the passengers, evidently, intend to turn the crosshairs back on the aviation giant, with the attorneys arguing that the airline’s water pipes being close to sensitive electronic systems that run the plane could be a reason.

In his interview, Andrews harked back to a long list of warnings issued over the years, some from Boeing itself and some from the FAA, that had raised alarms over the possibility of water leaks from the pipes. In 2016, ‘17, and ‘18, airlines were told to perform waterproofing maintenance.

“We know from FAA notices and directives that water has been found on 787s leaking into (Electronic) Equipment Bays (which is just below the cabin level and consists of the computers that control the flight, including FADEC or full authority digital engine control), and in some cases, equipment had to be replaced,” Andrews said in his interview.

In today’s digital planes, the FADEC controls many functions, including fuel flow and engine thrust – hinting that any water leak on the equipment need not just destroy the equipment to be dangerous, all it needs to do is trigger a reset.

“A reset can trigger an engine shutdown. In Ahmedabad, we saw both engines shut down or lose thrust within seconds; that is extraordinarily unlikely without a common cause. Water reaching those systems is one plausible explanation.”

In fact, there was a directive from the FAA less than a month before the crash for Dreamliners to be inspected for exactly this kind of leak, but it was a routine advisory, lacking urgency.

While the interim report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) seemed to hint at pilot error and did not mention anything about water leaks, the final full report could take at least a year, and quite possibly more than that. Meanwhile, it is certain that the kin of those killed are set to pursue their own legal remedy instead of waiting for a final verdict from the Indian authorities, which many don’t particularly seem to trust anyway.

If a technical glitch is established, it could well be another debilitating blow to Boeing, already reeling from one controversy to another for the last few years.

However, it could also mean bigger compensation if the technical issues can be established and followed through within the US legal system. Right now, the only compensation offered has been ₹25 lakh by Air India and another ₹1 crore by Tata Sons, the parent company of the airline. While the airline says that a good majority of the next of kin have been paid, Tata’s ₹1 crore is yet to be disbursed, as it is setting up a trust for the process, which could take time.