Varun Grover, Gaurav Taneja on Air India pilots getting blame in AAIB report: ‘White man will always support white man’

A commotion has arisen after the initial report regarding the Air India flight 171 disaster, which took place in Ahmedabad last month, resulting in the deaths of 260 individuals. The report indicated a lack of clarity in the cockpit just prior to the unfortunate event. Lyricist and writer Varun Grover, along with influencer Gaurav Taneja, have responded to the report’s conclusions, which appear to indicate pilot error.

The preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) regarding the crash of Air India flight 171 was made public on Saturday. The cause of the disaster was identified as fuel being shut off to both engines shortly after takeoff. The report disclosed that cockpit voice recordings caught one pilot inquiring why his partner had shut off fuel to both engines, only to get a denial in reply.

A number of Indian specialists have criticized the targeted publication of only one reworded sentence from what could be several minutes of audio discussions. Indeed, India’s pilot community criticized the crash report, as aviation groups accused investigators of hastily suggesting misconduct by the flight crew.

Varun also took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his anger over the report, and slammed the findings. He wrote, “Shilling for Boeing. White man will always stand with the white man. Shame.”

Gaurav also took the social media route to share his frustration over the findings in the report. He tweeted, “As expected ‘Blame the deceased Pilots’. They can’t come back to defend themselves. #Boeing has a lot of questions to answer!! BBC already gave Boeing a clean chit! #AirIndiaFlightCrash”.

On June 12, Air India’s Boeing 787-8 operating flight AI 171 heading to London Gatwick crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after departing from Ahmedabad, resulting in 241 fatalities among the 242 people on board. An additional 19 individuals lost their lives on the ground. It was the most severe civil aviation tragedy worldwide in over ten years, and the worst in India in over three decades.