Tata to create a new trust to help Air India crash victims: Chandrasekaran

The Tata Group will set up a new trust to support families of the Air India crash victims “in every possible way,” said

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran. 

In an interview with Times Now, Chandrasekaran said the group is working on a plan to depute one Tata employee with the families of each victim. 

“We are looking at the option to set up an AI171 trust to help the families,” Chandrasekaran, who first heard about the crash in his Mumbai office, said. 

The conglomerate has already announced ₹1 crore compensation to each victim of the crash which killed 274 passengers, including crew and people on the ground in Ahmedabad. When asked about maintenance of the aircraft, Chandrasekaran said Air India takes all safety-related issues very seriously. 

 

“We can't jump to any conclusions and we have to wait for the investigation to get through,” Chandra said. He added that the Black Box and Cockpit Voice recorder will give the correct picture. 

There were no red flags about maintenance, he said. A preliminary report is likely in the next 30 days, he added. 

“We had 27 Dreamliners when we bought the airline from the government in 2022 and acquired 6 through Vistara being merged, and there were no concerns about the Dreamliners,” Chandra said. Dreamliners have been flying for a very long time, he said, adding that Dreamliners are not maintained by any Turkish company as speculated in a section of the media.

 

Since the crash, Air India, Chandra said, cancelled several flights as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was doing mandatory checking of all the aircraft and several flights were diverted as Iran airspace was closed. 

 

Chandra admitted that the communication from Air India was not very strong and the group has set up a new strategic communications team to communicate better with the people. “We have to communicate very strongly on a daily basis,” he said.

On communications with the passengers, Chandra said communication has improved but still a lot needs to be done. “Our focus currently is on addressing the needs of all those who are affected and bring stability,” Chandra said. 

He added that they will look into the alleged ‘plagiarised’ statement made by Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson a day after the crash. 

On Praful Patel's social media statement that why Singapore Airline (SIA), an Air India equity holder, is keeping quiet, Chandra said SIA has been a great partner. 

“Since we have taken over, we have taken the best processes from SIA. They have helped us in processes like customer experience and they are offering all the help they can,” he said. Campbell was not a nominee of SIA, Chandra clarified. Chandra said when these Dreamliners were acquired in 2013, Patel was part of the then government, led by Congress. 

On Wednesday, former civil aviation minister Patel had lashed out at Singapore Airlines for its “deafening silence” following the crash of Air India flight AI171 last week. 

He questioned why a key shareholder and maintenance partner of the airline had failed to publicly respond for nearly six days.

Patel, a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, served as civil aviation minister from May 2004 to January 2011.