Crash and reckoning: Air India faces its gravest test since Tata takeover

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This story belongs to the issue:
July 2025
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This story belongs to the Fortune India Magazine July 2025 issue.

The deadly Ahmedabad crash has put the spotlight on Air India and the aviation sector. However, the Maharaja might find answers to its current troubles in its own history.

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Crash and reckoning: Air India faces its gravest test since Tata takeover
The crash, marking the first hull loss for a Boeing Dreamliner, prompted urgent safety checks by India’s aviation regulator.  

On May 7, 1949, after flying Air India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to J.R.D. Tata congratulating him for “raising the prestige of India abroad”. “The more experience I have of it, the better I like it,” he wrote. Nearly eight decades later, the airline—once J.R.D. Tata’s pride—is facing a massive crisis.