Air India Official Held Responsible For Ahmedabad Plane Crash? Here’s The Truth Behind Viral Claim

A London-bound Air India flight, AI 171, crashed into the premises of a medical college in Ahmedabad shortly after taking off from the airport on June 12, killing 260 people. Now, a post alleging that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has held three Air India officials, including one “Payal Arora,” responsible for the tragic crash, has gone viral online. 

Featuring a photo of a woman, the post claims, “DGCA has blamed three officials for the Air India accident that took place on 12 June 2025 in Ahmedabad, among whom the name of crew scheduling chief Payal Arora has come up prominently. This action was taken due to repeated lapses in Air India’s operating system, ignorance of licensing and rules. DGCA has ordered action against Payal Arora, considering her directly responsible for serious flaws in crew duty determination and scheduling (translated from Hindi via Google).”

Another such claim featuring images of three individuals has also surfaced on Facebook.

In a report dated June 21, 2025, news outlet Patrika also claimed that the DGCA ordered removal of three Air India officials for “failing to properly manage crew scheduling in the Ahmedabad plane crash incident.” 

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Fact Check/Verification

We began by examining the concerned order issued by DGCA Assistant Director Himanshu Srivastava on June 20, 2025. It noted, “Whereas, repeated and serious violations voluntarily disclosed by M/s Air India concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements. These violations were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System.” 

“The voluntary disclosures, while noted, point to systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability. Of particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible for these operational lapses,” the order added. 

It identified three Air India officials, Choorah Singh, Divisional Vice President, Pinky Mittal, Chief Manager – DOPS, Crew Scheduling and Payal Arora, Crew Scheduling – Planning, as “directly responsible for the continued non-compliance.”  

It further stated, “these officials have been involved in serious and repeated lapses including but not limited to: Unauthorized and non-compliant crew pairings, Violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms and Systemic failures in scheduling protocol and oversight.” 

The order directed Air India to “remove the above-mentioned officials from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering,” and initiate Internal disciplinary proceedings against them without delay. The outcome of the proceedings “shall be reported to this office within 10 days from the date of issue of this letter,” the order noted.

“The aforementioned officials shall be reassigned to non-operational roles pending conclusion of corrective reforms in scheduling practices, and shall not hold any position involving direct influence over flight safety and crew compliance until further notice. Any future violation of crew scheduling norms, licensing, or flight time limitations detected in any post-audit or inspection, will attract strict enforcement action, including but not limited to penalties, license suspension, or withdrawal of operator permissions as applicable,” the DGCA order stated. 

We did not find any mention of the June 12 plane crash in Ahmedabad in the order.

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Following DGCA’s rebuke, Air India said that its Chief Operations Officer Basil Kwauk will provide direct oversight to the IOCC. Kwauk has joined Air India from Singapore Airlines on deputation and had previously served at Vistara too on deputation, reported The Hindu on June 21, 2025.

The violations, as noted in the order, were discovered during a review of the airline’s transition to a new software, which happened in May 2024, used for crew scheduling, and were voluntarily disclosed by the airline. “Sources say there was an internal audit at Air India in February 2025, during which several lapses were found and reported to the top brass and then brought to the regulator. The DGCA had then granted Air India three months to address the lapses,” the report added.

Newschecker reached out to our source at Air India who dismissed the viral claim as well. “It is completely fake. This order of  the DGCA is not related to the Ahmedabad Air India plane crash. It is related to the violation that came to light after changes were made in the software used for crew scheduling. This violation was also voluntarily revealed by Air India,” we were told. 

Subsequent investigation on the plane crash led us to a release by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, dated June 26, 2025, on “Status Report on recovery and examination of data from Black Boxes – Air India Flight AI-171.”

Detailing the investigation it stated, “Both the Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) were recovered—one from a rooftop of the building at the crash site on 13 June, 2025 and the other from the debris on 16 June, 2025. Standard Operating Procedures were issued for their secure handling, storage, and transportation. The devices were kept under 24×7 police protection and CCTV surveillance in Ahmedabad.”

The black boxes were then transferred to Delhi by IAF aircraft with full security on 24 June, 2025.  “On the evening of 24 June 2025, the team led by DG AAIB with technical members from AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) and NTSB began the data extraction process. The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on 25 June, 2025, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data downloaded at the AAIB Lab. The analysis of CVR and FDR data is underway,” it added. 

We then conducted a reverse image search on the images featured in the viral post, and found news reports identifying the man as Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the pilot of ill-fated AI171 flight, and the woman in saree as Roshni Rajendra Songhare, a crew member on the same flight.

Despite multiple attempts, we were not able to find any information about the second woman seen in the viral claim, though users alleged that she is Payal Arora. However, our source at Air India stated that she was not the Payal Arora mentioned in the DGCA report, and that she was associated with another department. 

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Conclusion

Hence, the viral post claiming that Air India official Payal Arora was held responsible for the tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad was found to be false. 

Sources
DGCA Order, Dated June 20, 2025
Report By The Hindu, Dated June 21, 2025
Release By Ministry Of Civil Aviation, Dated June 26, 2025
Telephonic Conversation With Air India Source