Western media hit with legal action over Air India crash coverage

The Federation of Indian Pilots has filed a legal notice against the Wall Street Journal and Reuters over their coverage of last month’s deadly Air India crash, the group’s head, Captain MR Wadia, has told RT. He called the reports “irresponsible” and said they damaged the pilots’ reputations for suggesting crew error.

The UK-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on June 12, killing 241 of 242 people onboard and 19 people on the ground. A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that cockpit fuel switches had been switched off seconds after takeoff, which shut down both engines. The reason for the fuel switches being moved remains unclear.

The pilot body accused the Western media – particularly the WSJ and Reuters – of misrepresenting the findings and blaming the crew.

“Right from day one… there were Western media people in captain’s uniforms saying, ‘we know exactly what happened’, ‘we know exactly that the pilot made a mistake’,” Wadia told RT on Saturday. He added there were multiple “insinuations” suggesting pilot error from the outlets.

“These are totally irresponsible, irrational and illogical statements... to blame the pilots when we know for a fact that the pilots have done a wonderful job,” Wadia added. “That prompted us to give a notice to the Western media… that please resort to facts only and not to conjecture.” A legal notice is a formal warning that often precedes a lawsuit.

Asked why such reporting occurred, Wadia responded: “It’s just one word – finance.”

“Suppose it is found that Boeing is at fault for faulty equipment and that is what caused the crash… Therefore, they have tried to lay the foundation from the very next day that the fault of the accident is the pilots,” he said.

While the AAIB report does not blame Boeing for the crash, India’s aviation regulator has ordered fuel system checks on all domestic aircraft made by the US firm. Wadia declined to speculate on why the switches were turned off, saying only that further analysis is needed. However, he urged the Western media not to assign blame while the probe is ongoing.