BJP leader says Air India plane that crashed lacked proper maintenance: ‘Seats were damaged, GPS was not working’

A BJP leader, who claimed to have travelled in the same Air India plane days before it crashed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, said on Friday the plane “did not seem to have proper maintenance.” He claimed the GPS on the plane was not working and the seats were not in proper condition when he flew on the plane “three days back” from Gatwick, London, to Ahmedabad.

“There are a lot of facilities in the rest of the international airlines, but unfortunately, we don't see any of that in Air India. The GPS was not working. There was no internal telecom service, the seats were damaged, and the desks were not working correctly... The flight did not seem to have proper maintenance...,” BJP spokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar said.

He said the name 'Air India' has the word 'India' in it, “which maligns our country and is hurtful.”

Air India plane crash

On Thursday, the Al-171 Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 aeroplane bound for London's Gatwick crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport.

The airlines said only one out of the 242 people on board the aircraft survived the crash. According to Air India, the passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national.

The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours.

As per Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls.

Shortly after take-off, the Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed outside the airport boundary, into a doctors' hostel near Ahmedabad airport. Eyewitnesses reported thick black smoke rising from the crash site.

(With inputs from agencies)