A month after the worst aviation accident in India in decades, authorities are poised to release a preliminary report into the catastrophe, offering the first official clues to what caused the aircraft to plummet back to the ground just 30 seconds after taking off.
Investigators have revealed very few details since the Air India accident, and the report also stands to be basic and factual — if previous initial findings are any guide. Authorities are unlikely to draw definitive conclusions or assign blame, as their work continues in the coming months to piece together a complicated puzzle of what happened on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on June 12.
What is known is that the aircraft, fully loaded with fuel, quickly lost altitude and slammed into a hostel for medical students, where it exploded, killing all but one of the 242 individuals on board and more than 30 people on the ground. The pilot issued one mayday alert before Flight AI 171 crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad.
