Air India crash (Picture credit: AP)
LONDON: Relatives of flyers who died in the June 12 Air India crash have slammed the preliminary probe as a “cover-up” to protect the Tatas-owned airline, Boeing and the Indian government.“This report is wrong. We don’t accept it,” said Ameen Siddiqui, whose British brother-in-law and Gloucestershire resident Akeel Nanabawa, died alongside his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their daughter Sara in the June 12 crash of the Ahmedabad-London flight.Speaking to the UK’s The Telegraph from Surat, Siddiqui alleged that “they want to blame dead pilots who can’t defend themselves”. Siddiqui added that he had rejected Air India’s compensation offer and would take the airline to court for “killing our family members”.UK law firms are already representing families of dozens of passengers who died in the AI 171 crash and considering legal action against Boeing and Air India.
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Tushar Joge, whose male cousin’s in-laws, Vallabh Nagji Agheda and wife Vinaben Vallabh Agheda, both in their 70s, died in the crash, echoed the claim that the probe report was a “cover-up” for Air India and Boeing.“We were pre-empting that they would start blaming the pilots. Why are they not looking for a mechanical fault? How qualified are the people in the Indian Air Accident Investigation Bureau? The FAA (US aviation regulator) gave an advisory in 2018 to check the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature. Shouldn’t they have made this a mandatory requirement rather than an advisory?” Joge asked.The Agheda couple were coming to the UK to spend time with their youngest daughter and her family in Reading. Speaking to TOI from Vadodara, their son-in-law said: “It does not look like it’s the pilot’s fault. It could be Boeing’s design fault with the switches, or it could be Air India’s maintenance issues. Most of the families believe it’s a problem withthe aircraft. Air India is helping us with compensation but we are more concerned about getting the right report. We want the truth to make sure another disaster doesn’t happen.”Imtiyaz Ali Syed, whose London-based brother Javed died with his wife and two children lamented that the probe report was replete with “aviation jargon praising Boeing’s systems” while saying “nothing conclusive”. “Everyone, Air India, Boeing, government, has something to protect. But we have lost our entire families. How can we move on without the truth?” Imtiyaz asked.Sameer Rafik, cousin of crash victim Faizan Rafik from Leicester, told the BBC he did not trust the Indian government. “Until the airline provides the cockpit recording to us, I’m not going to believe the report,” Rafik said.
