As we approach the 30-day anniversary of the horrific and mysterious crash of Air India flight AI171, I think it’s worth reflecting on what a poor job India’s regulators have done in communicating with the public.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that their actual investigative work hasn’t been good (we don’t know!), but instead, I’m just saying that the communication has been abysmal, to a level we haven’t seen in a long time, especially for such a significant event.
In this post:
India’s AAIB has basically been radio silent
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has been leading the investigation into the deadliest aviation accident that we’ve seen in many years. Admittedly it takes a long time for investigators to actually determine what caused an accident, but that doesn’t make communication along the way any less important.
For example, when there’s a high profile aviation accident in the United States, you’ll find that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has a press conference almost daily in the days after an accident. In the case of this accident, I believe India’s Civil Aviation Minister had one press conference on June 14, and… that was it?
Okay, maybe they’re not having press conferences, but surely the AAIB website contains more important details about the investigation, right? Well, go check that out. Nearly a month after the accident, the front page of the AAIB website contains more information about the June 11 Yoga Day Celebration that the organization had, than it does about the June 12 crash that killed hundreds. The optics of that are very not good.
The only other mention on the website of this accident is a link to a different government website about the Civil Aviation Minister’s June 14 press conference.
Look, I could accept if the AAIB were simply bad at updating its website, but otherwise had decent communication, or vice versa. But in this case, it just seems to be part of an overall lack of communication and transparency.
Interestingly, the AAIB is supposed to release its preliminary accident report by tomorrow, at least based on international standards, of releasing such a report within 30 days of an accident. We’ll see what comes of that, and what’s included in the report, if anything.
Does communication really matter, though?
Some people may say “well, there’s not actually much information to share right now, so what do you expect them to say?” I think this is exactly why communication is so important.
We’ve seen an unbelievable amount of misinformation spread in the aftermath of this investigation, down to fake accident reports. The reason this becomes such an issue is because the people in charge of the investigation aren’t actually sharing any information, and that makes it very hard to know if what we’re hearing and seeing is accurate or not, since there’s no official confirmation or denial.
There’s a massive amount of public interest in this event for good reason. It’s the deadliest aviation accident in India in over three decades, so the public is going to care. There’s value in press conferences, even if they’re just to share that there are no new updates, and to dispel any rumors.
A couple of weeks ago, Jon Ostrower at The Air Current wrote an excellent piece on exactly this topic, titled “AI slop fills the information void of Air India crash investigation.” His point is exactly correct. When investigators just don’t communicate with the public, they’re basically paving the path for rampant speculation and misinformation, where nobody can figure out anymore what’s real and what isn’t.
Obviously the top priority should be to focus on what actually caused the accident, and making sure it never happens again. But I hope that regulators in India reconsider their communication strategy the next time there’s an accident, because surely they can’t think they’re doing a good job in that regard. I’d encourage media in India to call the government out a bit more for this, because this is not a good look.
Bottom line
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has done a disappointing job communicating with the public in the aftermath of the Air India Boeing 787 crash. Of course the most important thing is that they do a good job conducting the investigation, but that doesn’t take away from the importance of communicating frequently and transparently with the public.
It’s kind of a joke that the AAIB’s website is all about yoga, with barely any information about the country’s most fatal aviation accident in over 30 years.
What do you make of the job Indian regulators have done communicating following the Air India crash?
In fairness, they're still doing a better job communicating than the Mainland Chinese aircraft investigation team. Where's that China Eastern crash report?
@Lucky are you just gonna allow all this casual racism in the comments or what?
For real…not the first time I’m seeing unadulterated racism in your comments. Moderate your posts..disgusting.
Imagine the smell when they all raise their arms like that.
Such a ridiculous thing to say.
Clearly tells me that this is an [Indian] human error. The lack of communication has got to be intentional.
"There’s value in press conferences, even if they’re just to share that there are no new updates,"
Americans are entitled to have such a culture.
From a European perspective, that's a classic annoyance of American culture.
This post reads in really poor taste. The most important goal of an investigation is to make aviation safer by investigating what lessons can be learned from the crash. After that, they owe some duty to the families involved.
The general public should have right to know the results in due course but what is the urgency? So some dumb travel bloggers who want to make fun of a developing country's website can get some more clicks?
Andrew - I don’t read this as a travel blogger “making fun” of a country at all. Rather he makes some salient points about communication. I used to work in comms and one of the first rules of crisis comms is that if you don’t speak, someone else will and garble the message you want out there. Not providing updates can lead to misinformation and a suspicion that an organisation is deliberately holding back information.
So far the AAIB has announced when there have been any significant updates to the investigation (when they recovered the black boxes and when they were read out). What else is there to communicate if they don't know anything?
@Andrew_M
I agree 100%. Self-righteous Lucky implies they have nothing better to do than doing yoga. What an insensitive wanker he is at times.
Andrew....I totally agree with you, but that's how this blog has turned out now
Suddenly, China’s investigation into amU5735 does not look that awful…
A pilot death-rolled his aircraft in China and the gov't there denies all knowledge after several years. Meanwhile, an investigation in India is barely 30 days old and that's 'awful'? Clearly logic is not your friend. Let the Indians investigate and release their report, and THEN you can make an informed statement. Or you can be a wanker like Lucky.
Well done, 'Lucky'. Fanning the flames of anti-Indian sentiment, while pretending NOT to fan the flames of anti-Indian sentiment.
You always throw out garbage at the beginning of your sentences 'Indians are bad at communicating', then crawl back into a seemingly neutral posture by claiming 'look we just don't know what the situation is'. You really are trying to have your cake and eat it too. Be objective, or be opinionated. Cause you suck at trying to be both.
You obviously can't read if you think that. Ben didn't say anything about "Indians" in general. He pointed out that the investigations board isn't being honest and forthcoming with the public and that they have yoga day on their homepage instead of investigation updates. It's all on you for reading into that anything "anti-Indian." You probably are the type that sees everything through race-colored lenses. Pathetic.
As an Indian, I will say: you are an idiot.
Is your name John Patel?
Racist much?
As a Himalayan Master Yoga teacher, I have concerns about many of the comments here. I consider India my spiritual home and treasure every journey there to Rishikesh and the sacred Himalayan abodes. I would point out that the person teaching the yoga class pictured is a Woman. When you are the most populous country on the planet, the bureaucracy can often grind slowly.
Let's not forget, India landed a spacecraft on the moon....
As a Himalayan Master Yoga teacher, I have concerns about many of the comments here. I consider India my spiritual home and treasure every journey there to Rishikesh and the sacred Himalayan abodes. I would point out that the person teaching the yoga class pictured is a Woman. When you are the most populous country on the planet, the bureaucracy can often grind slowly.
Let's not forget, India landed a spacecraft on the moon. There is an engineering college almost every 2 or 3 kilometers when traveling.
The problem will be resolved and reported...maybe not at the speed desired by westerners. The universe does not revolve around the expectations of the west.
There we go. The ethnic card being played again. Not every criticism of India is an entitled, arrogant westerner against the nation's rise. Grow up and have a thick skin if you want to be treated seriously.
The problem is the lack of accountability. The Indian government always wants to create an image that everything is under control, and that they are the ones to be trusted. Any criticism and you are deemed an anti-national (in the case of foreign criticism, that is tantamount to being part of the western "old powers" scared and against a "rising India"). Their media outlets propagate the same narrative these days, unlike their relatively composed and...
The problem is the lack of accountability. The Indian government always wants to create an image that everything is under control, and that they are the ones to be trusted. Any criticism and you are deemed an anti-national (in the case of foreign criticism, that is tantamount to being part of the western "old powers" scared and against a "rising India"). Their media outlets propagate the same narrative these days, unlike their relatively composed and measured coverage during the 1999 Kargil war, for example.
Their underreporting of cases/deaths during COVID-19 a few years back, and the overlooking of significant losses during the airstrikes in Pakistan are some other examples. And the refusal of the ICAO's cooperation is a display of a lack of trust in outside bodies looking for answers (I'm no fan of the UN by any means, but I do believe allowing the ICAO to cooperate, due to it being a globally credible organization, would have been a good PR move).
We can talk all we want about how much India has changed, but their crisis management and level of communication leaves a lot to be desired. The lack thereof of the latter just leaves a vacuum to be filled by social media/AI misinformation and dodgy WhatsApp groups (not a WhatsApp user, but I know they can be incredibly toxic echo chambers).
I agree with the others who said that coming clean is paramount, especially because foreign nationals perished as well (it's also important for a domestic flight as well). This performance creates an image of uncertainty about potentially traveling to India among many, and the sense that competence/level headed constructive criticism is on short supply. And I say this as an person of Indian origin (though a US citizen).
I like your comment here. Every action is viewed through a political lens first.
Honestly (and unfortunately), this is very similar to the what the Trump administration is doing for example with the Texas flooding.
I am not surprised A "ROGUE" state like India where human lives matter The Least and a Fake Democracy which thrives on propaganda, hate, lies and war mongering hysteria and ripe with corruption and un-professionalism world should not expect any fair honest investigation or any proper communication regarding this air crash. They will hide the facts and cover up this disaster.
I don't think this post is going to age well.
Remember the NTSB's deal with Boeing over the 737 Max? After those two crashes killed hundreds, the NTSB and Boeing struck an agreement - that hardly inspires confidence.
Before praising one body by comparing it to another, we need to acknowledge that no investigation agency is above scrutiny - especially when lives are lost.
I don't remember reading anything about a comparison to the NTSB in this post. Maybe you need to re-read it and educate yourself.
Yoga will result in increased blood flow and get to the bottom of the accident with alacrity. Thought you knew this...
let's see if the report tomorrow sheds light but, if the evidence points to a shutdown of the engines by the pilots, there will be a whole lot of doubt about aviation in India.
Not sure how “rogue individual pilot” causrs more doubt than something like systemic vad maintenance / safety standards etc.
any of those are very problematic.
You mean the way there was a whole lot of doubt about aviation in Germany after a German pilot crashed a flight with 150 people on board into a mountain about ten years ago?
Tim is just being Tim in his fluffy world full of fluff.
If it's "Issue in one engine. Shut down the other by mistake" then there are several precendents, and not Indian.
E.g. British Midland Airways Flight 092
The yoga is extremely beneficial in assisting the AAIB coping with its alleged incompetence!
There's a lot of anti-Indian bigotry in the west as-is, and an article like this is unhelpful.
As a westerner I've found westerners by and large are particularly intolerant of cultural differences, and as such, are prone to ignorant, bigoted criticism of others.
An article like this should be aired to expose the AAIB's lack of transparency at the least.
There were approximately 60 non-Indian nationals aboard the doomed airliner and for that reason alone, India owes the world the decency of a competent & communicative investigation.
I'd even dare say even if it was an Indian domestic flight, the same should apply if the aircraft involved was not wholly manufactured there.
As someone who has been to India 4 times and has plenty of good Indian friends, I can attest that most of the country is decades if not centuries behind the West in civilizational development, and it's being actively exported into countries with a significant Indian diaspora all around the world, to the detriment of locals.
You can call it bigotry as much as you want, I call it observation and pattern recognition.
It is a bit sensational sure, but anyone who has worked in India knows that this is how India does crisis management. I have no doubt things are being done and changes will be made but it's disappointing that the public is not allowed to be involved in the process. India is also not the only country that does this but cultural relativism is not a one way street and that does not mean westerners and Indians are not allowed to be upset by this.
"Unhelpful" to your leftist ideals which are complete BS. You're more concerned about not criticizing minorites than you are about speaking the truth.
I criticize Indian employees heavily on a daily basis. I'm also asian and I don't criticize them out of bigotry. I do so because their immense incompetence p**sses me off having to fix their mess on a daily basis. And it's not 1 or 2 outsource employees but by now hundreds. Ironically, I have been happy with the majority of Indian female outsource employees though they are far and few. They actually listen even if...
I criticize Indian employees heavily on a daily basis. I'm also asian and I don't criticize them out of bigotry. I do so because their immense incompetence p**sses me off having to fix their mess on a daily basis. And it's not 1 or 2 outsource employees but by now hundreds. Ironically, I have been happy with the majority of Indian female outsource employees though they are far and few. They actually listen even if they don't always get it but they listen and they ask the right questions. Why the females are constantly getting fired is beyond me because the outsource company never ever gives me a straight answer. And I'm like but those ladies gets it and I can work with them while for the rest of you idiots I want to slap with my keyboard.
I'd say that westerners, particularly Caucasians, are the most tolerant of cultural differences compared to almost any other society in the world.
Name checks out.
@Lucky- what’s their incentive to tell you? As Munger stated… show me the incentive, I’ll show you the result.
WTF is wrong with this not thinking too deeply type country???
In today's internet, I don't think communicating more frequently is going to prevent a flood of AI slop misinfo.
India is a terrible country to live in. I have been forced to go to India on business trips. So terrible.
Shoddy maintenance and Engineering dept, dirty planes, cars, dirty river, etc..... WTF more do you want????
I frequently get cheated by taxi drivers but I prefer to pay rather than risk being stabbed and then have to go to an Indian hospital over a few dollars. Once the taxi driver insisted on a "fuel surcharge". Another time, I was ripped off but I snuck in an Indian banknote that was no longer valid so that partly offset it.
One good thing about India is that there is not much graffiti. I think people are too cheap to buy paint.
The preliminary report has to be submitted to ICAO within 30 days. There is no requirement for it to be released to the public in that time frame, or indeed ever. They can simply investigate and issue a sealed report with no public statement if they so choose.
Just like Putin can start a special military operation to de-nazify and ignore public opinion.
Except India is not like Russia.
And that's why I chose after my last AI flight in the early nineties to never set foot on an AI plane ever again.
I'm sure that will do wonders for their pax numbers if they take that approach.
And, of course, not single woman in the group of 18 hard-work stretchers. After all, ignoring the public during a shambolic investigation is man's work.
Yeah agree awful their lack of communication.
Considering the non factual statements thr president of the USA makes on a weekly basis I am unsure this article really furthers much. Is there an actual law which states that after 30 days they need to report anything ot that an independent country needs to adhere to what the USA suggests?
Maybe until the facts are gathered they think saying nothing is better than speculation, I know such a random theory these days.
The NTSB is hardly packed with women. If anything, India has 3 times the number of female pilots that the US has. Asinine comment
Not surprised