New Delhi: A year after one of the deadliest aviation disasters in recent memory, the families of those killed in the Air India Ahmedabad crash are no closer to knowing what brought the Boeing 787 Dreamliner down, mere seconds after taking off. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to release its report AI-171 flight crash on Friday (June 12), an official source told Hindustan Times. However, the document will not resolve the cause of the tragedy as the plane’s engines’ examination is still underway.A Reuters’ report, published on Thursday (June 11), corroborates this claim. The report says investigators were expected to delay issuing a final report, citing a pending analysis of the plane’s G.E. Aerospace-made engines that have been at the epicentre of the probe into the fatal crash, killing 260 people on June 12, 2025.AAIB is set to broadcast an update which is not “even a status or interim report,” outlining the work completed and areas still under inspection. “It is essentially an update that investigating authorities are expected to provide when a final report cannot be released within a year,” a civil aviation ministry source informed HT. “It will provide a sense of where the investigation stands and the work that has been completed. But it should not be seen as a document that will establish the cause of the accident,” they added.The release follows an obligation under the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Annex 13, which mandates either a final report or a progress update within a year of any accident, as per international regulations.Investigators reportedly conducted engine-related testing in April and visited France in May to study the engine management unit. Bloomberg News on Thursday (June 11) reported that the final report into the crash is expected within roughly three months after evaluation of the engines – sent to the United States – is complete.Indian pilots union oppose interim updateAs per the HT report, the Federation of Indian Pilots on Thursday (June 11) urged the ministry to not issue the update, raising concerns about fuelling confusion surrounding the crash rather than assuaging it. “It will cause more speculation and more misunderstanding. We have requested the Indian government and India’s AAIB not to come out with any interim report.” C.S. Randhawa, the union’s president, told reporters ahead of the one-year anniversary.According to Reuters, the union has previously pushed Boeing and Air India for more technical data on the plane “to allow for a rebuttal of the pilot suicide theory being explored by AAIB.” The contentions stem from AAIB’s last year’s preliminary report which spurred a myriad of conspiracy theories, mostly alleging human intervention. The union fears a new update stopping short of the real cause will again lead to similar consequences, reports HT.What is known about the final 32 secondsThe Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner lifted off Ahmedabad’s runway at 08:08:39 GMT on June 12, 2025, en route to London’s Gatwick airport with 242 people onboard. Within three seconds of being airborne, both engine fuel-control switches moved from “run” to “cutoff” in rapid succession. The airplane almost immediately began losing altitude before clearing the airport perimeter. Efforts made to restore fuel flow and relight the engined ended in vain, with the plane have neither the height nor the time to recover. It struck a B.J. Medical College hostel complex, killing 241 of the 242 passengers along with 19 students on ground.AAIB’s preliminary report said the cockpit voice recorder captured a brief exchange between the two pilots: one of the pilots asked the other why fuel had been cut off, while the latter denied having done so. The single exchange, as well as the report’s implication that no technical or design flaws had been found, prompted months of speculation, with pilot bodies opposing claims of deliberate manual action before technical fault was fully ruled out.AI-171’s troubled historyAnother consequential facet in the investigation is the aircraft’s troubling history. Aviation safety campaigners at the Foundation for Aviation Safety (FAS), headed by former Boeing manager Ed Pierson, submitted a report to the US senate in January 2026 alleging that AI-171 had a documented history of technical problems dating as far back as February 1, 2014 – the day it arrived in India.According to The Wire’s report, documents revealed a disturbing record of repeated engineering, manufacturing, quality and maintenance malfunctions, including in-flight fires. There were two fires in 2022 alone: one in January, severe enough to warrant a complete overhaul of the flight’s power distribution panel and another in April involving the landing gear indication system. FAS catalogued a wide range of issues over the plane’s 11-year life, citing electrical system failures, wire damage, software faults, smoke, short circuits and overheating components.Also read: Plane in Air India Ahmedabad Crash Had History of Failures, Aviation Safety Campaigners Tell US SenateIt noted that government, Boeing and Air India officials were “deliberately withholding and concealing critical safety information” from the public and called for an investigation into the “criminal cover-up.” The report also found that Air India’s other 787 airplanes show signs of electrical system failures as well.Another Air India dreamliner groundedAs reported by The Wire earlier, a significant development came when another Air India 787 Dreamliner, scheduled to fly from London’s Heathrow airport to Bangalore on February 1, 2026, was grounded after one of its fuel switches shifted from “run” to “cutoff’ without the required lift action twice during pre-flight checks. The incident challenged the prevailing presumptions that the AI-171 crash occurred due to manual pilot action.Also read: Air India Dreamliner Grounded After Fuel Switch Malfunction, Casts New Light on Ahmedabad Crash ProbeA senior commander quoted by the Times of India said the incident fundamentally challenged the assumption that switch movement in the crash was a deliberate act, signalling corruption and mechanical detent failure as credible explanations. Air safety expert captain Amit Singh was also recorded observing that a 2018 US aviation regulation caution about Boeing 787 fuel switched had never been adequately addressed. Captain G.R. Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan, had also pointed to Air India’s longstanding maintenance culture problems and the complexities introduced by the Tata-era merger of four airlines, all of which had differing standards.Importantly, AAIB’s preliminary report made no mention of any safety actions directed at Boeing or G.E. Aerospace.Families asked to waive legal rightsWhile the last outstanding step in the G.E. Aerospace engines examination remains incomplete, without which a final report cannot be issued, families of people killed in the crash have been asked to sign away present and future legal rights to access financial compensation by Air India. Radhika Mishra, daughter of former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani who was among those killed, in an email to Tata Sons and Air India chairman N. Chandrasekaran questioned why families were being asked to sign final settlement documents before the investigation was concluded.Also read: Air India Asks Ahmedabad Crash Victims’ Families to Waive Right to Legal Action to Claim CompensationThe waiver – mandatory for receiving monetary settlement – applies to present and future legal claims against not only Air India, but also any other third party involved such as Boeing, G.E. Aerospace, Safran, Honeywell, government agencies or airport operators. Although Air India maintains there is no deadline to accept the offer, Mishra’s email emphasises the push for implying innocence of involved parties and a final closure before complicity of any authority has been established.A year on, for 260 families, several of whom are still awaiting definitive identification of their loved ones’ remains, the verdict remains pending, with the interim update bringing no relief.