New Delhi: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) issued an interim statement on the Air India flight 171 crash on Friday (June 12), the tragedy’s first anniversary, in which it did not say when the final report into the incident will be out.Investigators have made “significant progress” in analysing flight parts and records over the last year and analyses remain ongoing, the AAIB said on Friday, adding that the final report will come out when its probe and international consultations are complete. It did not indicate when that might be.It has examined technical, operational, organisational and human factors linked to the accident over the past year, and has made “significant progress … in the examination and analysis of aircraft systems, flight recorder data, engine-related components, maintenance and operational records”, the bureau said.Evidence gathered and examination results “are currently being analysed in a comprehensive and integrated manner” and “additional technical evaluations and specialist examinations” will continue wherever deemed necessary, it said.A final report “will be released upon completion of all investigative activities and the requisite international review and consultation processes prescribed under ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organisation] Annex 13”.According to annexe 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, countries shall in the interest of accident prevention publicly release the final report of an accident as soon as it can and if possible within a year of the incident.If that is not possible, an interim statement “detailing the progress of the investigation and any safety issues raised” must be released on every anniversary of the accident.While the AAIB did not say what additional evaluations it is looking to make, Bloomberg wrote earlier this week citing sources that investigators would miss the one-year deadline because the flight’s engines are still being examined in the US.That process will likely conclude within the next three months, by which time the final report is expected, the news agency’s Mihir Mishra and Allyson Versprille reported their sources as saying.Flight 171 crashed just over 30 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad airport last year, killing all but one of the 242 persons on board in addition to 19 others on the ground.Per the AAIB’s preliminary report released on July 12, both of the Boeing 787-8 ‘Dreamliner’ aircraft’s fuel control switches moved from the ‘run’ (i.e. on) to the ‘cutoff’ (off) position almost simultaneously three seconds after takeoff.“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the bureau had said then, not identifying who said what. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kunder were flying the aircraft.Both switches were turned back on within 15 seconds of moving to cutoff, but the aircraft could not recover from its engines being deprived of fuel when it was travelling at its low altitude and speed. It crashed into Ahmedabad some 32 seconds after takeoff.Though the AAIB’s preliminary report has brought the pilots’ – specifically the captain’s – role into focus, the Federation of Indian Pilots earlier this month asked the bureau to look into the flight’s computer and operating systems and not solely focus on the ‘pilot suicide theory’, Bloomberg reported.On Friday the AAIB said in its interim statement that the “sole purpose of an accident investigation is to enhance aviation safety” and “not to apportion blame or liability”.“Accordingly, AAIB urges all stakeholders, including the media and the public, to refrain from speculation or premature conclusions while the investigation remains in progress,” it added.Meanwhile, after the pilots of a London-Bengaluru Air India flight in February reported a potential defect in the way one fuel control switch in their Dreamliner aircraft moved, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation last month asked that Boeing examine the component in a laboratory environment with its (the DGCA’s) officials present.