A US-based aviation safety organisation has alleged that crucial documents related to the crash of Air India Flight AI-171 in June 2025 were withheld from investigators, raising serious questions about the official probe into the mishap that killed 260 persons.In an email sent to investigators and oversight authorities, Ed Pierson, Executive Director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, claimed that the group had obtained “non-public documents” indicating a troubling history of electrical failures on the aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad.The aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB, went down on June 12, 2025. According to Pierson, the documents reveal “a history of chronic and serious electrical and electronic systems failures on VT-ANB”, including smoke and fume incidents, burnt wiring, electrical shorts (or short circuit), arcing and electrical fires.He said the aircraft had even been grounded multiple times due to problems with a key electrical component. “The airplane was grounded and the P100 Power Panel was replaced on three different occasions,” Pierson wrote in the email.The P100 Power Panel is a major power distribution system that receives power from the aircraft’s left engine and distributes it to multiple onboard systems. Located in the electronics bay below the passenger floor behind the wing, the panel houses critical components such as circuit breakers, contactors and relays.Pierson said failure of this system had previously caused significant damage and led to design modifications and software updates aimed at improving fault protection.The aviation safety group alleged that these documents were under the control of Air India and Boeing before and after the crash, but were never disclosed to investigators.“This information should have been made immediately available to accident investigators,” Pierson said, adding that none of the documents were referenced in the preliminary report issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in July 2025.He further noted that the AAIB had not issued any safety recommendations in the nine months since the crash. “By failing to disclose this information to the public, and by giving no indication that these issues are even being investigated, accident investigators have effectively reinforced the narrative that the pilots were to blame,” Pierson said.The organisation suggested that possible aircraft defects, rather than pilot error, may have played a role in the tragedy.Pierson further wrote that the aircraft’s “chaotic design and manufacturing history” and repeated electrical failures point to “more than one plausible scenario involving major airplane defects”.“It appears to us that there has been a deliberate effort by Boeing and/or Air India to conceal and withhold information from the AAIB, the National Transportation Safety Board and the rest of the international accident investigation team,” Pierson wrote, calling it a potential violation of International Civil Aviation Organisation standards.The email was also sent to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, with Pierson urging the authorities to investigate Boeing. He argued that the company’s actions were similar to its conduct following the two fatal crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.“We believe certain Boeing employees may have acted criminally,” Pierson said, adding that stronger oversight after the earlier crashes could have prevented later disasters.The safety organisation said it had analysed several hundred internal reports related to the crashed aircraft and thousands of failure reports involving other Boeing 787 planes.Pierson said the group had been trying for two months to share the documents with investigators. He claimed the AAIB had not responded to repeated attempts to provide the information.“At this point, we have zero confidence in this accident investigation,” Pierson wrote in the email to an NTSB investigator.Pierson added, “The 260 victims and their families deserve to know the truth. Passengers, flight crew and the public deserve to know about ongoing safety risks.”In a brief response, Michael Hauf, an investigator with the NTSB, acknowledged receipt of the material and said the agency was reviewing it. “We are continuing to review the information. Please email any further information you would like us to consider,” Hauf wrote.