Beasley Allen, a well-known U.S. aviation law firm, is representing the relatives of 65 people who died in the Air India Flight AI-171 tragedy in a lawsuit against Boeing and Air India. D. Michael Andrews, an aviation lawyer, runs the firm, which is known for successfully representing families in the Boeing 737 MAX disasters.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner Flight AI-171 crashed on June 12, just after taking off from Ahmedabad, India, and heading to London Gatwick. There were 241 persons on board the plane and 19 individuals on the ground who died in the crash. Only one person survived. There were 181 Indians and 52 British people among the victims.
Beasley Allen is looking at a number of legal options, such as:
In U.S. federal courts, people are suing Boeing for product liability.
Montreal Convention claims against Air India in British courts.
Andrews said that the company is “determined to follow the data to find out how and why this tragedy happened,” even if no lawsuits have been filed yet. He is asking Indian officials to make all material available, including transcripts from the cockpit voice recorder, so that specialists from around the world may do a full analysis.
Disagreeing with the First Results
Andrews is openly disagreeing with the interim findings from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), which says that “potential pilot action” may have caused the tragedy. The AAIB’s first investigation said that both engine fuel control switches were switched from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” just seconds after takeoff. This cut off the fuel supply and made the engines lose power.
Andrews says that a Flight Data Recorder can only pick up changes in electrical current, not when a person moves a switch. He says that this means that a computer-triggered problem, not human mistake, might have generated the fuel cutoff signal. He also pointed out recent problems with other Boeing 787s, which could mean that there are faults with the whole system.
Trupti Soni, a family member who lost relatives in the crash, agreed with this and said, “I suspect a technical or design fault is being hidden, with blame shifted to the pilots.”
Compensation and the law
Beasley Allen’s reputation grew after it worked on the Boeing 737 MAX cases, which killed 346 people in two disasters. After those events, Boeing paid $2.5 billion in damages as part of a 2021 deferred prosecution deal. This included a $500 million fund for the families of the victims. The business admitted that the incidents were their fault because of a broken Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The company’s success in these cases offers the relatives of the AI-171 crash victims faith that things would turn out well.
Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group, has provided ₹1 crore in ex gratia compensation to the families of passengers who died and ₹25 lakh to the families of people who were hurt on the ground. The corporation has set up the AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust, which has a ₹500 crore fund, to help families who have been affected over the long term. The legal agreement with Beasley Allen says that families won’t have to pay costs unless they get their money back.