New Delhi [India], June 18 : Air India and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Wednesday publicly expressed his sorrow over the London-bound Air India flight crash on June 12, finally breaking his silence after the tragedy during an interview with Group Editor-in-Chief of Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, Navika Kumar.
In an exclusive interview on The NewsHour with Navika Kumar, Chandrasekaran said that the airline was doing everything possible to support the victims' families and that there were no words to console the grieving families, but he pledged that the company would stand with them now and in the future as well.
"It is an extremely difficult situation where I have no words to console any of the families of those who died. I deeply regret that this accident happened in a Tata-run airline. And I feel very sorry. All we can do is to be with the families at this time, grieve with them and we will do everything to support them at this hour and beyond," the Tata Sons Chairman stated
Chandrasekaran emphasised that the ill-fated aircraft had a clean track record with no prior technical red flags and clarified that the right engine had been newly installed in March 2025 and the left engine was scheduled for maintenance only in December, with both pilots being highly experienced and well-respected professionals.
He urged against speculation and stressed that investigations were underway by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and the DGCA, and that preliminary findings would likely be available in about a month. Until then, he said, it was not appropriate to jump to conclusions based on rumours.
"There are speculations about human error, speculations about airlines, speculations about engines, maintenance, and all kinds," Chandrasekaran said. "There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is that this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI-171 has a clean history. As for the engines, the right engine was a new engine put in March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and is due for its next maintenance check in December 2025. Both engine histories are clean. Both pilots were exceptional. Captain Sabharwal had more than 11,500 hours of flying experience; the first officer, Clive (Kundar), had more than 3,400 hours of flying experience. What I hear from colleagues is that they were excellent pilots and great professionals. So, we can't jump to any conclusions. I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that," he stated at the The NewsHour.
"These are different from safety issues. If there is a safety issue, there is no way the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) will allow us to fly. And with respect to this specific aircraft, what I have seen is what I have told you," he said.
During the interview with Group Editor in Chief of Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, Navika Kumar, Chandrasekaran addressed concerns regarding the airline's operational history and denied any link between Turkish Technic and the maintenance of Air India's 787 Dreamliners.
He said that all such aircraft are maintained either by AI Engineering Services Limited or Singapore's SIA Engineering Company, and also refuted claims made by former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who alleged that Singapore Airlines held significant operational control.
Chandrasekaran said that CEO Campbell Wilson had resigned from Singapore Airlines before taking over at Air India, and at the time of his appointment, Tata owned 100 per cent of the airline.
"None of them (the 33 Dreamliners) are maintained by Turkish Technic. Most of them are maintained by AIESL (AI Engineering Services Limited) or SIA Engineering Company (whose parent organisation is Singapore Airlines)," he stated.
"Singapore Airlines has been a great partner. And since we took over, they have helped us in many dimensions. Even some of the safety procedures, the best processes, we have taken from Singapore Airlines. We have taken it from Vistara, and many of the processes where we needed best-in-class benchmarks, they have helped us. They have reached out; even at this time, their CEO is in constant touch with me. Whether it is customer experience or any other process, they are always available. They have been offering all the help they can," he further noted in response to claims made by Patel.
"No, the CEO is not a nominee of Singapore Airlines," he added. "In fact, when the CEO was hired by me, he had to quit Singapore Airlines and join Air India as an employee. And at that time, Singapore Airlines did not have a stake. We owned 100 per cent of Air India. And then when the Vistara merger happened with Singapore Airlines, with Air India, then Singapore Airlines got their 25 per cent stake. So he's not a nominee of Singapore Airlines."
"787s were also bought by Air India in 2013. And I think Mr Patel was there at that time. I don't know when he was the minister. But these are things that happened almost 13 years ago," he further stated.
Responding to criticism about recent delays and flight cancellations, Chandrasekaran explained that these were caused by a combination of mandatory DGCA safety inspections, diversions due to Middle East airspace closures, and routine technical issues discovered during line checks. He said that 24 of the 33 Dreamliners had already completed the required inspections.
Acknowledging that communication with passengers had been lacking, he admitted the airline needed to improve and confirmed a strategic communications team had been put in place recently to handle such crises more efficiently.
"There are more than 1100 flights that we fly every day. And in the last six days, there have been in general, anywhere from five to 16 or 18 flights, depending on the day, that have been cancelled. Second, what has happened in this period of six days, there are three things at work. The first thing is, we have had to go through the DGCA checks. The moment the accident happened on the 12th, DGCA mandated additional checks to be done on all the 787s. So, we have had to ground many 787s and as a result, we are short of aircraft and we have to cancel those flights. That is one cause. 24 of the 33 aircraft have gone through checks. The second reason is that because of the Iran conflict, the airspace there has got closed. Flights, therefore, have had to be diverted. When the flights are diverted, many of the flights get cancelled. The third is technical issues. And when we do, when we take off and land in any destination, you must know that we will be doing line checks. And every now and then, it is common for the line checks to find some spare part to be changed, for instance. This is not the case on every flight, but it does happen," the Chairman said. "We've got to do a better job at communication. We have put a strategic communications team in the last three days."
Chandrasekaran also commented on the recent scrutiny Boeing has faced over the safety of its Dreamliner aircraft and said that he was aware of whistleblower concerns in the US but insisted that Air India's Dreamliners had passed internal inspections without any warnings. He added that he had personally spoken to senior leadership at both Boeing and GE to double-check the safety and performance of the aircraft and engines in their fleet.
"These are things that are being dealt with by investigative agencies in the US, but overall 787s have been flying for a very long time. We already had 27 787s by the time we bought Air India. And we have not had any red flags in our checks," he stated. "I did connect with both Boeing and GE at the highest levels. Parallel to the DGCA checks that we have gone through, I have asked them to check and tell us if there have been issues with any of the aircraft or engines."
When questioned about the absence of Air India officials at the funerals of crew members, Chandrasekaran denied the allegations and clarified that senior executives, including the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer, had been present at various locations and stated that the company had coordinated the presence of its top personnel across all affected regions and that it would continue to maintain close contact with every victim's family. He emphasised that this was not being done for publicity but out of responsibility and respect.
"That is not true. We discussed it at length on the day before and who should go for the rights for Captain Sabharwal. The chief operating officer of Air India was there, the CHR was there and few more people were there at different levels. And we as a group will do multiple things. It is not about just being visible in one location. There will be a senior person who will be there in all the locations whether it is our crew member or non-crew member. That is why we have created this whole organisation. Some will be in Mumbai, some will be in Gujarat, some will be in other parts of India. But I don't want to say it for any publicity but we will definitely visit all the families. All the top people will visit all the families," he added.
Chandrasekaran also announced plans to establish an AI171 trust dedicated to supporting the victims' families in the long term and said the trust would not only address financial needs but would also provide broader support as required and reiterated that the focus was on standing by the families in meaningful ways and building a permanent structure to ensure that they are not forgotten.
"So, there are structures we want to put in place. We wish to create an AI 171 trust which will be available to them to look after. But it is not just about financial needs, but other needs too. We have to think through and create the trust and other functioning infrastructure so that we can be with these families," he stated.