Did ‘preliminary report’ on Air India 171 point out a seat malfunction in cockpit for crash? Fact Check

Posted by: Arun Nag June 16, 2025

A claim is going viral as the investigation is still underway to determine the cause of Air Indlia flight 171’s crash on June 12, 2025 in Ahmedabad. The claim points out a seat malfunction in cockpit as the cause for the plane to crash.

The claim reads: “The cause of the tragedy in India has been revealed: the plane crashed due to an error in the cockpit, 270 people died‼️June 16, 2025 –A preliminary report on the crash of Air India flight AI-171 reveals shocking and shocking details that led to one of the worst… ”

It has been shared here and here.

FACT-CHECK

When Digiteye India received a fact-check request on its WhatsApp tipline, the team conducted a quick search for details. Since no such information has come from the aviation authorities, we further checked for possible sources and found that it was a known hoax making the rounds on social media.

Currently, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the official investigation, with support from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the AI171 flight’s “black boxes”—the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder—have been recovered, and the AAIB team is analyzing the data.

The claim cites a report started making the rounds on social media, terming it as the “preliminary report” and claiming a seat malfunction led to the disaster.

See the full post here:

However, a close scrutiny shows that the post appears to be a work of fiction, with a future date of release (June 25, 2025). Further search reveals several details in the report which were taken from a report on a separate and unrelated aviation incident, a non-lethal mid-air plunge that occurred on March 11, 2024 when a LATAM airlines went down during its flight from Sydney to Auckland over the Tasman Sea; the aircraft dropped suddenly by 400 ft within a few seconds. The passengers and objects were thrown upwards, with around 30 to 40 people hitting the ceiling of the cabin. One passenger told media that he was thrown back four to five seat rows.

The preliminary report by the Chilean authorities said the flight “experienced an unintentional, abrupt descent due to an involuntary forward movement of the captain’s seat.” The report in Spanish can be accessed here.

Taking a cue from the above, the recent claim is being made that the Air India flight 171’s cause of crash was for the same reason. As of now, no cause or any preliminary report has been released by the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry, and hence, the so-called “AAIB report” on the AI171 crash is fabricated. Unless the investigation team consisting of technical experts determines the cause of the crash, it cannot be concluded that the AI 171 crash was because of a “seat malfunction”. Hence, the claim is false.

Claim: Air India Flight 171 crash preliminary report shows a seat error in the cockpit as the cause.

Conclusion: Misrepresentation. No preliminary report into AI171 crash has been released so far, and the citation in the claim refers to a LATAM Airlines flight mid-air incident in March 2024.

Rating: Misrepresentation —

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.