As we approach the 30-day anniversary of the horrific and mysterious crash of Air India flight AI171, I think it’s worth reflecting on what a poor job India’s regulators have done in communicating with the public.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that their actual investigative work hasn’t been good (we don’t know!), but instead, I’m just saying that the communication has been abysmal, to a level we haven’t seen in a long time, especially for such a significant event.
India’s AAIB has basically been radio silent
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has been leading the investigation into the deadliest aviation accident that we’ve seen in many years. Admittedly it takes a long time for investigators to actually determine what caused an accident, but that doesn’t make communication along the way any less important.
For example, when there’s a high profile aviation accident in the United States, you’ll find that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has a press conference almost daily in the days after an accident. In the case of this accident, I believe India’s Civil Aviation Minister had one press conference on June 14, and… that was it?
Okay, maybe they’re not having press conferences, but surely the AAIB website contains more important details about the investigation, right? Well, go check that out. Nearly a month after the accident, the front page of the AAIB website contains more information about the June 11 Yoga Day Celebration that the organization had, than it does about the June 12 crash that killed hundreds. The optics of that are very not good.
The only other mention on the website of this accident is a link to a different government website about the Civil Aviation Minister’s June 14 press conference.
Look, I could accept if the AAIB were simply bad at updating its website, but otherwise had decent communication, or vice versa. But in this case, it just seems to be part of an overall lack of communication and transparency.
Interestingly, the AAIB is supposed to release its preliminary accident report by tomorrow, at least based on international standards, of releasing such a report within 30 days of an accident. We’ll see what comes of that, and what’s included in the report, if anything.
Does communication really matter, though?
Some people may say “well, there’s not actually much information to share right now, so what do you expect them to say?” I think this is exactly why communication is so important.
We’ve seen an unbelievable amount of misinformation spread in the aftermath of this investigation, down to fake accident reports. The reason this becomes such an issue is because the people in charge of the investigation aren’t actually sharing any information, and that makes it very hard to know if what we’re hearing and seeing is accurate or not, since there’s no official confirmation or denial.
There’s a massive amount of public interest in this event for good reason. It’s the deadliest aviation accident in India in over three decades, so the public is going to care. There’s value in press conferences, even if they’re just to share that there are no new updates, and to dispel any rumors.
A couple of weeks ago, Jon Ostrower at The Air Current wrote an excellent piece on exactly this topic, titled “AI slop fills the information void of Air India crash investigation.” His point is exactly correct. When investigators just don’t communicate with the public, they’re basically paving the path for rampant speculation and misinformation, where nobody can figure out anymore what’s real and what isn’t.
Obviously the top priority should be to focus on what actually caused the accident, and making sure it never happens again. But I hope that regulators in India reconsider their communication strategy the next time there’s an accident, because surely they can’t think they’re doing a good job in that regard. I’d encourage media in India to call the government out a bit more for this, because this is not a good look.
Bottom line
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has done a disappointing job communicating with the public in the aftermath of the Air India Boeing 787 crash. Of course the most important thing is that they do a good job conducting the investigation, but that doesn’t take away from the importance of communicating frequently and transparently with the public.
It’s kind of a joke that the AAIB’s website is all about yoga, with barely any information about the country’s most fatal aviation accident in over 30 years.
What do you make of the job Indian regulators have done communicating following the Air India crash?
