Will learn, emerge stronger from plane tragedy: Air India CEO in letter to staff

Mumbai: Air India chief executive officer Campbell Wilson has assured employees that the airline will learn from the tragic plane crash that killed over 240 people on 12 June and emerge stronger.  

In a letter to employees, Wilson reaffirmed that Singapore Airlines, which owns 25.1% of the company, continues to support the airline. “This has been a tragic event, and we will learn whatever we can from it so that we are stronger in the future," Wilson wrote in an email on Friday to over 30,000 airline employees. "However, our aim in every respect, be it safety, quality, service, scale, reach, professionalism or any other dimension, remains the same if not higher than before." 

"We continue to have the full support of both shareholders," Wilson, who took the current role in 2022, said.  

Tata Sons spent ₹18,000 crore to buy Air India from the Indian government in January 2022. Subsequently, it merged Vistara, a 51:49 Joint Venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines Ltd, with Air India. Consequently, Singapore Airlines became a 25.1% shareholder, while Tata Sons owns 74.9%.  

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On 12 June, an Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London crashed within seconds after take off, resulting in the death of over 240 people. Within hours of the deadly disaster, Tata Sons and Air India chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran and other senior officials reached Ahmedabad to assess the situation. The same day, Chandrasekaran said it was the worst day of his professional career.  

Since then, Chandrasekaran has been firefighting issues in the aftermath of the tragic incident, leading him to skip the annual general meetings of Tata Consumer Products Ltd on Wednesday and Tata Consultancy Services on Thursday.  However, he presided over the shareholder meeting of Tata Motors Ltd on Friday.  

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Campbell asked employees to refrain from commenting or speculating on the reasons behind the country’s worst civil aviation disaster in almost three decades. “We are providing all information requested by the AAIB ( Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) and are cooperating completely. It is vital that the facts, whatever they may be, are known so that we and the industry at large can learn from them,” he said. 

Experts see Campbell's outreach as an attempt to allay Air India employees' concerns.

“He is trying to restore confidence and reassure all pilots and cabin crew of their safety concerns, as they have become apprehensive after the tragedy,” said Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a former airline instructor pilot. 

On 17 June, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had raised concerns regarding recent maintenance-related issues reported by Air India and advised them to strengthen their internal coordination. The regulator also said that the surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any safety concerns.

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