The Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which killed more than 270 people, including 241 passengers, has not only exposed fatal cracks in the airline's operational safety but also eroded the Tata Group's grand ambition to reinvent it as a world-class carrier.

What was billed as the renaissance of India's flagship airline has turned into a damning indictment of misplaced priorities, poor maintenance culture, and a service record mired in mediocrity.

The rot runs deep

The crash of Flight AI171 on June 12 has thrown into sharp relief what whistleblowers and disillusioned passengers had been warning all along: that the rot runs deeper than branding exercises and aircraft orders.

More damning, however, are the growing concerns that Air India's maintenance protocols were either insufficient or inconsistently applied.

The Air India app may have been redesigned, and cabin crew retrained and dressed in new uniforms designed by Manish Malhotra, but the core experience remains alarmingly inconsistent.

Former pilots have alleged that cost-cutting and pressure to speed up market entry have outpaced safety investments.

"We've raised these issues before," said a retired Air India commander who refused to be named. "This was a disaster waiting to happen."

Reduced liability

When Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, it promised nothing short of an aviation revival. The group's executives spoke of erasing decades of bureaucratic inefficiency and restoring pride to a brand once seen as the jewel of Indian skies.

But three years on, the mask of transformation has slipped.

The government had written off debt, waived several conditions regarding the retention of existing employees, and handed over the airline to Tata Sons, which came with several existing assets.

The Centre wrote off over Rs 61,000 crore of Air India's legacy debt and other liabilities before transferring the airline to the Tata Group. Of Air India's total debt of Rs 61,562 crore on August 31, 2021, the Tata Group took over Rs 15,300 crore, while the remaining Rs 46,000 crore (approx.) was transferred to a special-purpose vehicle called AIAHL for government settlement.

Avoidable errors

What the Air India owners had to do was focus on efficiency one step at a time. But that has been found wanting. There has been a litany of avoidable errors and passenger grievances under Tata's watch. Air India's reputation is on a free fall, with issues ranging from emergency landings and in-flight system failures to customer service scandals.

For an airline with ambitions of becoming a global player, the burden of proof is now immense. It must not only fix what went wrong but convincingly demonstrate that such lapses will not recur.

In 2024 alone, the airline's operations were involved in several incidents. A Delhi-San Francisco flight was stranded for days in Russia after an engine failure, and a Chicago-Delhi flight had to return midway when nearly all the lavatories stopped functioning.

Passengers have consistently complained of poor hygiene, broken seats, malfunctioning entertainment systems, and indifferent crew. Photos of stained upholstery and faulty equipment regularly surface online, undermining Tata's well-funded campaign to portray the airline as a reformed entity.

Renewed scrutiny

The consequences of this approach are now grimly visible. The crash has prompted renewed scrutiny of Tata Group's aggressive expansion strategy.

The Vihaan.AI plan, touted as a blueprint for Air India's rebirth, focused on global reach and modernised fleet procurement, including the world's most significant aircraft order from Boeing and Airbus. But ambition without foundational reform is a recipe for crisis.

"New planes can't fix an old culture," said a former executive at the DGCA. "You need deep institutional change, not just new jets and uniforms."

Indian passengers have an emotional connect with Air India and have continued to use its services despite the relentless monotony of complaints. However, their patience must be running thin, and they may even start looking at alternatives.

Internal voices

Even within the Tata Group, voices are reportedly growing louder over the poor and inefficient operations.

Passengers have consistently complained of poor hygiene, broken seats, malfunctioning entertainment systems, and indifferent crew. Photos of stained upholstery and faulty equipment undermine Tata's well-funded campaign to portray the airline as a reformed entity.

The Boeing Dreamliner that went down was a relatively new addition to the fleet. That fact alone has intensified scrutiny.

If a modern aircraft on an international route can experience such a catastrophic failure within seconds of take-off, the implications are chilling. Preliminary findings suggest possible mechanical failure involving the flaps and thrust control system.

Brand fallout?

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered urgent inspections of Air India's Boeing 787 fleet, specifically those powered by General Electric's (GE) GEnx engines. One-time "additional maintenance actions" were mandated, including in-depth flight control checks and power assurance tests. That such protocols had not been routine speaks volumes about the gaps in oversight.