Air India crash: Experts warn against GenAI, fake social media post amid ongoing probe

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's last week released it preliminary report on the Air India 171 crash.

Amid the ongoing investigation into the Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad that claimed as many as 261 lives, experts warn against falling prey to unfounded theories and GenAI-created fake information.

“I have, throughout these last couple of weeks after the accident happened, pointed out that there is…an information vacuum out there, and it’s been filled by nefarious actors, by either people who are wildly speculating without any kind of basis about the causes but maybe with good intentions, but also by these AI (artificial intelligence) generated interim reports…So, I am highly critical about the way that that the information flow has happened here,” Petter Hörnfeldt told The Indian Express. He is a pilot who runs well-regarded aviation education and information channels on YouTube.

Experts told IE that only few people were well-versed with the aviation industry to tell fake from genuine information, and debunk wildly speculative hypotheses.

According to Hörnfeldt, these fake reports are being shared by professionals and they’re only going to get more believable as time goes by. “There needs to be a shift now, I think, from the authorities’ point of view. And I know that this is shared by others in the industry as well. There needs to be a shift to more and quicker information sharing…Saying that you don’t know something, it’s also information. Going out and having a daily brief, basically, and saying that ‘So far, we’ve found the black boxes, we’re looking into them, we’ve sent them off to be read’,” Hörnfeldt said.

According to the IE report, many aviation experts feel regular communication through frequent public briefings will help in the correct information reach the common man. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has so far held just one briefing on the accident.

What does preliminary report say?

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's (AAIB) last week released it preliminary report on the Air India 171 crash.

The 15-page preliminary report of the investigation examined the sequence of events and engine behaviour leading up to the crash of Air India flight AI 171 involving a Boeing 787-8 aircraft. According to the report, within seconds of lift off, both engine fuel control switches of the aircraft transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position one after another with a time gap of 01 seconds and turned off, resulting in devastating air tragedy.

The report also stated that fuel samples taken from the bowsers and tanks used to refuel the aircraft were tested at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Lab and were found satisfactory.

However, only a limited quantity of fuel could be recovered from the APU filter and the refuel/jettison valve on the left wing.

The report said these samples will be sent to a specialised facility capable of conducting tests with the minimal quantity available.