Investigations are being carried out regarding the Air India plane headed to London Gatwick that crashed on June 12, immediately after its takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport in India, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 33 on the ground. Now sabotage is being looked at as a possible cause.
The Minister for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, has said that sabotage is a possibility not yet ruled out while investigators from the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) examine all possible angles and causes. It is the first accident of this kind involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and a report is expected to be released in three months.
The fact that both the data downloaded from the black boxes and the voice recorder will remain in India without consultation from foreign experts has drawn criticism due to a possible lack of transparency and the fact that international aviation guidelines require a preliminary report to be released within 30 days.
Indeed, despite airplanes being one of the safest modes of transportation, the Air India crash is a stark reminder that zero risk is impossible. Even with ever-improving technology, we continue to face grim reminders from the long catalog of air disasters recorded in the annals of commercial aviation. Sadly, few survive a plane crash, such is the destructive force of an event of this nature. And there have been some truly horrific air accidents across the world.
Click through to see some of the deadliest passenger plane crashes in history.