Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi demands inquiry into ‘leak’ of AAIB’s report on Air India Ahmedabad plane crash

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader and Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday (July 15, 2025) wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, seeking a formal inquiry into how details of a preliminary report on the crash of Air India flight AI171 were allegedly leaked to the international media before it was officially released in India.

For the sake of transparency with regard to the authorship of the preliminary report, Ms. Chaturvedi said the names of all members of the investigation panel should be made public, and the report should bear the signatures of each panel member.

“I write to you to express serious concerns regarding the manner in which the recent interim investigation report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau [AAIB] was handled and disseminated, particularly in light of media reports surfacing in international publications before the report was officially made public in India,” Ms. Chaturvedi said, adding that it has serious implications for “public safety, pilot morale, and India’s global aviation standing”.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday released its preliminary report on the crash of Air India’s Boeing 787-8 plane that killed 260 people, including 241 people onboard. The aircraft, which was operating the flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed into a building soon after takeoff.

The Shiva Sena (UBT) MP said that one cannot be a mute spectator with regard to the narrative being built around the AI 171 crash and the interim report. “It is deeply troubling that sensitive details of the AAIB report were available to foreign news agencies and published in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal before any official release in India. This raises urgent questions about how the contents of the report were accessed by foreign entities prior to their dissemination to the Indian public and concerned stakeholders,”she added.

Ms. Chaturvedi claimed that the non-stop insinuations being made against the deceased pilots through implication and selective leaks of the interim report through the international media were “absolutely reprehensible”.

“Such motivated speculation via broadcast, print and digital platforms shows a more sinister attempt to malign our pilots who aren’t alive to put their case, even pilot associations have raised their objections,” she said.