Good evening, Mr. Chandrasekaran. We meet in difficult times, at a time when this country has seen probably the worst air crash in recent times. At a time we can still hear probably the cries of help that may have gone out at that time. I want to ask you, Mr. Chandrasekaran, you said this was the most difficult time that you and your company have faced. Where were you when you first got the information?
On June 12th, that day I was in Bombay in my office. I was in an internal meeting when I first heard the news. It was quite shocking and something that is incomprehensible that suddenly you heard. And it took me a few seconds to gather myself, and then immediately I rushed to the airport to fly to Ahmedabad.
How did you hear about it? Was it a colleague?
It is a call that I got from someone. Hey Chandra, what is happening? Then immediately I went out, and my assistant was there. She switched on the TV, but I didn't wait for anything and immediately I rushed.
And what were your first thoughts? Did you get the information on what were the casualties, like what had happened, or was it just instinctive that you ran?
I knew immediately I have to go to Ahmedabad. So I asked the office to immediately arrange the flight. I will go to the airport, and then I started making calls as I was leaving office, sitting in the car and going to the airport. I was making calls to Air India, making calls to our people in Gujarat, our manager in Gujarat. There are many Tata companies, and so getting information piece by piece. And by the time I reached the airport and was getting into the flight, I knew the enormity. And I was also watching online and taking calls and trying to assemble people. You know, it was a very difficult situation. And so I was trying to think what should I be doing. Immediately the thought came to me that what we need is a response team on the ground and we need to have people. I didn't know how many Air India people will be there, so my thought was, while I called our Air India people, I also called all our Tata colleagues. And you know, you're dealing with it, people are calling you at the same time because people want to know more, people think that I would know more, but I was actually like anyone else. So that's what happened.
Did you initially hope that there would be some survivors, or did you from the word go know that it was a bad crash?
No, no, I was like everyone else, hoping that people will survive. You were praying like everyone else. God, what is happening? And you know, somehow you hoped that people will survive because you have not seen the site. You are only hearing stories. So I was only hoping that the image will be there but the people will survive, or how many will survive. These were thoughts that were going through my mind.
But there is anger amongst the families. They are demanding answers. Many people are totally taken aback. And if I just, you must have read these stories too. There was the Johi family. The father was settled in London, in the UK, was coming back to pick up the wife and their three children. Those pictures have been there across social media, across various media, and the entire family was wiped out. Then there is the case of Arjun Manuhai Poleia, who came to just give his wife's ashes away. She had died earlier. He left his two daughters, 8 and 12, back in London only to do the last rites of his wife, and now his children are orphaned. What would you say to them today, these people?
I think it is the most horrific story that you can ever hear. It is such a heart-wrenching situation. It's very, very difficult to console anyone who has lost a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a son. It is very, very difficult to console. Whatever you may say, it cannot be sufficient enough to console them from this loss. So all I can say is that I grieve with them as much as they do. And when I say this, I mean it for me and all my Tata colleagues. We just want to consider them as part of the Tata family for life. But there is no life. They have gone. But the families that they leave today, we just have to be with them. All we can promise is we will be with them, and I will be with them. But it's very, very hard to console because you can't get the life back.
How would you be with them? In helping them in every which way, now and in the future. Those two young girls, 8 years old and 12 years old, what are they going to do without their parents? And how will the Tata group be with them?
So there are structures we want to put in place. One of the things that we have been thinking is to create, say for example, AI-71 trust, and then which will be available to them to look after. But there are many things. It's not only the financial need; there may be other needs. So we've got to think through and then create the trust and other functioning infrastructure so that we can be with this family. Some will not need any help. Some will need some kind of help. Some will need emotional help. We don't know. We will have to find this out. But the point is, it could happen to any one of us. It is very, very hard to explain what these people will be going through, and it's very hard for us to console.
What would you want to say to them today?
It is an extremely difficult situation where I have no words to express to console any one of them. I just deeply regret that this whole accident happened. And I feel very sorry, and all we can do is to be with them at this time. We grieve with them and we do everything we can.
Have you spoken to any of these families?
I only so far met the lone survivor, and now we plan to visit as many families as possible. Myself and between me and my colleagues, we intend to visit all the families. But now currently our job is to help the families to come to Ahmedabad, collect the remains, and provide them some brief counseling, and then all the way to the final rites. Currently that is what we are doing. We have one Tata colleague, as an angel, deployed to work with each family. And there are 400 Tata people across companies in Ahmedabad. And what we are trying to do is to be with each of these families in the next few days to get through this stage. Then we need to meet them, we need to support them, we need to see what we can do and what we need to do.
Mr. Chandrasekaran, on the first day there was a statement where you said you need a transparent investigation into what happened. I want to ask you, where have you reached with that probe? Because there would be one Tata investigation apart from the other investigations. So what have you found so far?
See, this is a crisis or a tragedy of a gigantic proportion. It has affected everybody. Yes, the families are affected, but the whole country is affected in a manner of speaking. There is a lot of fear. There is a lot of anger. I can understand that personally. I have also traveled a lot in my life. I used to travel 200 days internationally a year for 20 years, and I have faced flight diversions, flight cancellations, all kinds of issues. And every time one small thing happens, you get affected. And this I can understand — what is the level of fear that would have set in. So everyone wants to know what happened, and I can tell you I also want to know the same. Unless or otherwise we know what happened, there is no hope to fix it so that it doesn't happen again. If you know what has happened, then there is a chance to fix it so that it doesn't happen again. But we have to go through the process. Airline systems are quite complex, and airlines have been built with a lot of redundancy. If such redundancies are not there, these kind of incidents can happen very often. So the fact that these are rare is because such systems are there. But still this occurred. So unless or otherwise we wait for the investigation, we can get into a lot of speculations. There are speculations about human error, speculation about airlines, speculation about engines, maintenance — all kinds. There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, AI-71, that particular tail, has a clean history. And the two engines — right engine was a new engine put in March 2025, the left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due next maintenance check in December 2025 — and both engine histories are clean. When I saw that, I couldn't find anything with the team. Both the pilots are exceptional pilots. And the Captain Sabharwal has more than 11,400 hours of flying experience, and the first officer Clive has more than 3,400 hours of flying experience. What I hear from our colleagues is they were excellent pilots and great professionals. So we can't jump to any conclusions. And there are a lot of theories, and you see them on YouTube, you see them in media channels, you see them on other channels, and a lot of experts. So all I would say is that unless we wait for the investigations to come through — and I am told by all the experts that the black box and the recorders will definitely tell the story — and so we just have to wait for that. And before that, it's very important not to jump into any conclusion.
So if you're saying everything was perfect — the engines, one was new, one was due for servicing only by the end of the year — then what went wrong? There are two questions. There are two questions that are being speculated on. There are only 2% of air crashes worldwide where the crash happens in the ascending period of the aircraft. Only 2%. And this AI-71 was one of those flights where while taking off, the crash happened, with such low data in terms of percentage probability. What happened?
See, Navika, as I said, I am not an expert to be able to decipher this. All I know is the facts, the records that I have seen. I'm not to say this is ruled out, that is ruled out.
But about the Tata group — you said you would have a separate investigation?
We can't do any separate investigation. All the records will be with the DGCA, and the DGCA has set up those commissions, and they will do the investigation. There is independent investigation possible. So no preliminary probe by Air India itself. Internal, there is nothing we can do. We can only see our records. Were there any red flags? Were there any maintenance red flags that had been put out by DGCA? We understand two. I have seen this record for these aircrafts and the engines and the pilot record. I sat with the team, discussed this, and I didn't see any red flags, nor did they highlight any red flags.
But DGCA has fined you in the recent past, over the last maybe year or so, where there have been several fines that have been put on Air India for different kinds of red flags and maintenance issues. And I can read out to you these: the DGCA put a 30 lakh fine because Air India and Air India Express did not meet operational robustness, maintenance-related delays. There have been different kinds of fines.
One — now the point I'm making is that what I am giving you, the information, is very specific to this tail number and these engines and this pilot and this incident. And any safety-related issues, we take it very seriously. See, there are two things in the airline. One is very core, which is the safety, and there are other things that you have to do. And all I would say is that anything safety-related, the first thing you have to cover. And there are many things — you yourself, you know, there are many makeup issues that are there, still there are some TVs don't work, some seats don't function. Okay, those are customer experience issues. We are trying to sort them out. They are different from safety issues. Anything that is safety issues — there is no way DGCA will allow us to fly. And with respect to this specific aircraft, what I have seen is what I have told you. But this is not to say anything more extra, because we need to wait for the investigation.
There are some reports that say that June 3rd and June 5th there were two show cause notices from the DGCA.
See, anything other than this particular aircraft, we can talk about it separately. But all I am giving you data is only with respect to this incident, this aircraft, these engines, and these pilots.
I want to ask you about the Turkish Technic maintaining Air India fleets — that has been raised as an issue that could probably be the cause in this case. How would you respond to that speculation?
In none of these 787 Dreamliner aircrafts — we have 33 of them — none of them are maintained by Technic. Predominantly, most of them are maintained in India by AISL or SIA Engineering — that is the engineering company AISL and SIA Engineering Company in Singapore. So these are the guys who are maintaining these aircrafts. They have nothing to do with any Turkish company for the 787 fleet.
For the 787s — you have almost 33 787s in your fleet. The Dreamliners are suddenly the bad boys in the fleet. There have been whistleblowers in the past who have raised many questions about the safety norms followed by Dreamliners. At any stage, have your people raised safety concerns on the Dreamliners to you?
See, practically speaking, there has never been a safety concern raised because Dreamliners have been operating globally for a very long time — from I think 2008 or 2009 or something like that. And Air India also procured them much before we bought Air India. So Air India bought most of these — I think when we bought Air India itself, we had 27 Dreamliners, and then we got additional six through Vistara. So Dreamliner-specific complaint we have not received. So while we have ordered a large number in the new orders — we have ordered, we have made a lot of order on A350, but we have also got options to buy 787 — but there has never been a specific concern on the 787. But all these videos are also surfacing, and they are doing a lot of viewing at this point in time. But you must be aware of the fact that this is not only something that is surfacing now. The United States, the FAA, is investigating into some of these charges that have been made by former staff of Boeing.
I want to ask you — the Federal Aviation Administration is looking at some of the exposes made by Sam Salehpur, and then there has been John Barnett who's raised concerns — now late John Barnett — and they've said that these concerns did exist in the Boeing aircraft.
See, these are things that are being dealt with the investigation agencies in the US. But overall, 787s have been flying for a very long time, and in Air India, it has been flying 787 for a long time.
So then let me ask you — you said, and I completely bring to you the viewer feedback, you know, the customers out there who use your airline every day for commuting. They are at the end of their tether because there have been 13 Dreamliner flights that have been grounded between the 12th of June and today — six days — 66 flights that have been cancelled. And it is spreading nervousness of the kind that has never been experienced before. Forget the flying experience. Just the fact that flights are getting cancelled, information is not coming in, the fear factor has taken over at airports. There is literally a riot out there. How do you explain this?
Let me give you a full breakdown. First, I would like to say that there are more than 1,100 flights that we fly every day. And in the last six days, there have been, in general, anywhere from 5 to 16 or 18 flights depending on the day that have been cancelled. Okay, first you need that number. Second, what has happened in this period of six days? There are three things at work. The first thing is we have had to go through the DGCA checks. The moment the accident happened on the 12th, DGCA has mandated additional checks to be done on all the 787s. So we have had to ground many 787s, and as a result we are short of aircrafts and we had to cancel those flights. That is one cause. About 24 out of the 33 have gone through the checks and the remaining are going through, and it is taking time but it will get through. The second reason is also this whole airspace has got closed — Iran and the whole thing that is happening in the Middle East. So as a result, flights have to be diverted. When the flights are diverted, many other flights get cancelled, and these two have a knock-on effect because if the flight doesn't arrive in time, that flight cannot take off, and when that cannot take off, we have to cancel it because there is no aircraft. The third is technical issues — and when we take off and land in any destination, you must know that we'll be doing line checks, and every now and then it is common in the line checks to find some spare part to be changed or something to be changed — not in every flight, but it does happen. So because of that there may be delays. If the spare part is there, immediately they change and immediately they take off. If the spare part is going to take time and even if it comes and they fix it, they may lose the slot of taking off or arriving, landing, because they will close the airports at 10:00 at some places, etc. So these are the three things that have caused it. It is not all our technical errors. But I agree with you, and Air India could have been very proactive in terms of everyday saying if they are cancelling, why are they cancelling, as opposed to a flight getting cancelled. And in these six days, because see, normally if they had not communicated, then it wouldn't create so much fear. But because of what happened on June 12th, anytime something happens — a delay or a diversion or a cancellation — even if I was traveling, I will be afraid. That is what has happened. So we are doing a better job of communication. We have not been good at it.
You are admitting that communication hasn't been very strong?
And what are the corrective measures that you are undertaking?
So we have set up a communication team on top of what we have in Air India. There is a regular comms team, and we have put a strategic communication team in place in the last three days. And today we have put out the first comprehensive media statement explaining all this — what happened on June 12th and subsequently why there have been so many cancellations. When you say and give them these numbers — the total number of flights, 1,100 flights we take, the cancellations, and why these cancellations have happened. And then we have taken an additional step, because we are going to feel this kind of disruption for some more time. Our checks will be there, also the airspace closure will be there. So we have decided to reduce the number of aircrafts which are flying so that we can have a lot of buffer aircrafts.
You're doubling — more than doubling — the buffer aircrafts, both in the wide body and the narrow body — 787s, 320s, and the Trip 7s?
We're creating more buffer, and that statement would have been issued by now.
My question to you is also about the fact that Boeing has had a series of bad press, if you want to call it that, but several questions that have been following them in recent times. In fact, after the crash, there has been a meeting between you and the Boeing head visiting India. I want to understand from you what was this meeting all about? Safety aspects of Boeing — are they a concern? And what is it that has been red-flagged to Boeing in terms of the hardware, the aircrafts themselves?
So I did connect with both Boeing and GE at the highest levels. And to be frank, their top team from both the companies traveled and met with us. What I asked both of them, in parallel to the DGCA checks that we have gone through, I asked them to check and tell us any issues are there in any of the aircraft or engines.
What were your conversations with Stephanie Pope? Because many people are today talking about the spate of technical snags, in quotes, that have hit Air India in the recent week. Are these technical snags because of design issues, or are they regular stuff that often crop up?
See, as I said, the numbers that you have said comprises multiple groupings. Some are very deliberate grounding of planes because we had to go through DGCA checks. Then a certain number had to go through or cancel primarily because of this airspace closure and diversions and disruptions due to that and the knock-on effect. Then there is a third category. So since we have not explained all of this, every cancellation has been reported in the media. And I don't blame the media. I totally hold Air India and our team to account that we have to do a better job of communication. Since that was not done, everything is reported as a technical snag. But none of these technical snags are of the nature that aircraft cannot fly. It is some part missing, something missing so far. And this is not to say that something else I will not see in the future. So at this point in time, this is the status. We have to give a very strong communication on a daily basis, at least for the time being, till such time the confidence is restored.
But Mr. Chandrasekaran, I want to ask you — you're talking about communication to the media. I'm talking about real communication to the customers waiting at airports. The communication link there is probably the weakest ever at this point in time. Which is why you have frayed tempers, you have agitated families, you have people expecting family coming from different locations internationally. And for most people, India doesn't begin when they land in India. India begins when they get into an Air India flight that has a destination in India. What happens to that brand name, that complete faith in the brand?
I can say that in each one of these areas — whether it is communication at the gate, or communication at the counters, or every aspect — there has been a vast improvement, but it is not where it should be. Still there is a lot of gap. So we are on a transformation journey. We have done about three years, and in these three years we have had to work on every dimension — whether it is in the fleet dimension, whether it is in engineering, whether it is maintenance, whether it is safety, whether it is customer service, technology. We made progress in all dimensions, but nowhere we are where we should be. And we know we can get there, but it is taking time.
