An independent aviation expert has raised serious concerns about alleged discrepancies in the official report into the fatal crash of Air India Flight 702, claiming that key moments in the final seconds of the flight are either missing or misrepresented in the publicly released data. The report, published by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) earlier this month, has come under scrutiny for its inconsistent timeline and what one expert describes as “alarming omissions” that could obscure the true cause of the disaster.

The Incident

On April 14, 2024, Air India Flight 702, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route from Frankfurt to Mumbai, crashed during its approach to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The aircraft, carrying 211 passengers and 13 crew members, came down in a mangrove forest just 8 kilometers short of the runway. The crash resulted in 76 fatalities and dozens of critical injuries, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in India in over a decade.

The Official Report

The DGCA’s final report, released on July 5, 2025, concluded that the accident was caused primarily by pilot error in adverse weather conditions. According to the report, the flight crew misjudged altitude and airspeed during a steep descent, causing the aircraft to stall at low altitude. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) were both recovered, and investigators presented a detailed minute-by-minute reconstruction of the final 10 minutes of the flight.

But it is precisely this timeline that has now come under fire.

Disputed Timeline

Dr. Adrian Moore, a British aviation safety consultant and former investigator with the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), analyzed the report and discovered what he claims are “glaring inconsistencies” in the timestamps between the CVR and FDR data. “There is a crucial 14-second gap between the last recorded engine throttle input and the aircraft’s impact, during which no data appears to have been captured,” Moore said in an exclusive interview. “That is extremely unusual — and concerning.”

Moore highlights three specific moments where the timeline seems to break down:

At 18:46:12 IST, the CVR records the captain issuing a go-around command, but there is no corresponding increase in engine thrust in the FDR until 18:46:22.

Between 18:46:22 and 18:46:29, the aircraft’s descent rate sharply increases, yet no pitch or control inputs are registered during this time.

At 18:46:29, the FDR cuts off entirely — two seconds before the reported impact time of 18:46:31.

“These seconds are not just academic,” Moore insisted. “In aviation, a few seconds can determine whether an aircraft recovers from a stall or crashes. If the flight data is incomplete or tampered with, then we cannot fully trust the conclusion that pilot error was solely to blame.”

Calls for Independent Review

Following Moore’s allegations, several family members of crash victims have joined the call for an independent international review of the investigation. “We deserve to know the full truth,” said Ria Thakkar, whose husband died in the crash. “If there are missing seconds, we want to know what really happened during those moments. Was it equipment failure? Was there a system malfunction? We cannot move on with unanswered questions.”

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) also weighed in on the controversy, releasing a statement calling for “complete transparency” in crash investigations. “Any anomalies in the black box data must be thoroughly explained,” the statement read. “Trust in aviation safety depends on the integrity of the investigative process.”

DGCA Response

In response to the growing criticism, the DGCA issued a brief statement on July 23 acknowledging the concerns and promising to “review the technical data.” The statement read, “We take all feedback regarding the integrity of our investigative process seriously. Our technical team will examine the alleged discrepancies in CVR and FDR timestamps to determine if additional clarification or supplemental reporting is required.”

However, officials have so far denied any suggestion of data suppression or manipulation.

Expert Skepticism

Despite the DGCA’s assurances, Moore remains skeptical. “We’ve seen in the past that national aviation bodies can face conflicts of interest, especially when a state-run carrier is involved,” he said. “That’s why international oversight is crucial in cases where the public interest — and lives — are at stake.”

Aviation experts note that this is not the first time a major crash investigation has come under fire for incomplete or confusing data. In the case of the 2009 Air France Flight 447 disaster, it took two years and multiple underwater recovery missions to piece together the final moments accurately.

Conclusion

As pressure mounts on the Indian authorities to re-examine the data, questions remain about what really happened in the final seconds of Flight 702. For now, families of the victims and safety advocates continue to seek clarity and justice.

“We’re not conspiracy theorists,” said Thakkar. “We just want every second to be accounted for — because those seconds mattered.”