US team in Ahmedabad, leads collated for probe teams: teen’s video to CCTV footage

On Sunday afternoon, a team of 10 officers from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration reached Ahmedabad to examine the crash site – AI-171 was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

An officer said that records of the Air Traffic Control (ATC), examined by Gujarat Police, show that the aircraft may have taxied at least 300 metres more on the runway which the ATC “did not find unusual”.

“It took off at 1.38 pm and just after a minute, around 1.39-1.40 pm, the pilot sent out a ‘No thrust… May Day…May Day’ message, following which communication was lost and a crash was heard,” the officer said.

Another officer said aviation experts have also acquired the airport footage of the aircraft in full throttle before it becomes airborne, “but so far there is no clear footage of what happened between it being airborne and the crash”.

Speaking to The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity, a senior officer of Gujarat Police said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) as well as Air India and Boeing had made requests to “officially acquire” the video shot by Aryan Asari from a terrace in Lakshminagar, located not far from the crash site.

“The video shot accidentally by the teenager has become probably a rare case where a plane has been filmed going into a crash… The investigators of AAIB as well as officials of Air India and Boeing had expressed deep concern about the leads that they saw in the video and requested that it should be formally documented in order to help the investigations,” the officer said.

“Aviation investigators have also sought the video formally in order to correlate the descent of the flight captured in the video with the eventual findings from the black boxes of the flight… We have been told that while ascertaining the cause of the crash, the footage will lend important technical assistance as the experts have been primarily able to spot some anomalies in the way the aircraft had taken off… Their concern is to establish if it was due to human error or some internal system failure, which can only be concluded by aviation experts. Therefore, the video has been brought on record, for future evidence, if needed,” the officer said.

According to the officer, footage from the DVR recovered by the Gujarat ATS from the BJ Medical College hostel mess is also being “examined” by the Ahmedabad city police in connection with the Accidental Death report filed on the loss of lives at the medical college hostel.

“The footage shows the position of the students, the ongoing lunch at the mess at the time the plane crashed into the building. It is being looked into to piece together the sequence of events for the separate AD that has been lodged in the case of the casualties at the hostel,” the officer said.

According to the officer, an aviation delegation has raised concerns about a bird strike and will examine the wreckage of the engine for clues. “However, no other footage of the flight taking off or being airborne is available. The team of the engine manufacturing company is accompanying the delegation to also ascertain if there was indeed any bird strike, as concerns have been raised about it,” the officer said.

Another senior police officer said teams of specialised units of the Gujarat Police conducted a thorough investigation into the possibility of sabotage for over 48 hours after the crash, and have so far “found no leads” that indicate any foul play.

“After the initial focus on rescue, we immediately got on to investigating the possibility of a sabotage as the first line of police investigation. While aviation experts will do their task, the Gujarat Police has examined the minute-by-minute happenings of the airport in the two hours that the aircraft was present on the ground at the SVPIA (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport)… We have checked where it was parked and how much access was available to anyone,” the officer said.

Police also conducted a detailed background check of the ground staff as well as a list of “usual suspects and past accused” to rule out any possibility of sabotage.

“The plane wreckage and crash site were thoroughly checked for any signs of unusual explosive traces… Even the NSG unit that arrived in Gujarat with the K9 unit concluded that there was no foul play in terms of explosives. The fire that followed the crash was from aviation fuel. We also examined in detail that the flight had landed in Ahmedabad from New Delhi and was standing on the tarmac for around two hours, where it was being readied for the next takeoff. It never went into a hangar or such places where there could have been unauthorised access. In fact, only a limited number of ground staff attended to the flight. We found no suspects… The ground staff that supervised the procedures followed that day has said that no anomalies were reported before takeoff,” the officer said.

On Sunday, Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay, in a post on X, appealed to people not to go near the crash site.

“Extremely grateful to all the local residents and volunteers who immediately joined us at the crash site for the rescue and relief operations. Since last two days, entire area has been cordoned and sealed for quick and easy collection of evidence for purposes of investigation. Appeal to all not to go near the crash site,” the DGP said.