Kolkata: The Air India airline is facing another backlash just days after its plane crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 241 people on board. Even the ground impact of the crash caused immense devastation, resulting in the deaths of above 30 people so far, including five MBBS students residing in the hostel.
While Air India was slammed after the June 12 tragedy, the airline is facing another criticism, this time due to its CEO Campbell Wilson’s remarks. According to social media users, the message of Wilson on the deadly plane crash was “plagiarised” from the speech of Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines.
Moreover, social media users found similarities between sentences like “This is a difficult day for all of us”, “I want to brief you on a serious accident”, and “I know there are many questions and at this early stage, I’ll not be able to answer all of them, but I do want to share information I have at this time”.
My perspective on the plagiarized message used by Air India CEO & MD Campbell Wilson in the aftermath of the deadly, tragic plane crash of Air India Boeing 787 in Ahmedabad https://t.co/sUhNWTwfGF#publicrelations #corporatecommunications pic.twitter.com/SRMzuD7YsM
— Karthik 🇮🇳 (@beastoftraal) June 16, 2025
Notably, Isom gave his response following a mid-air collision near Washington DC on January 30 where a commercial jet collided with a military helicopter which led to the death of 67 people. Notably, industrialist Harsh Goenka reacted to the comparison between the two speeches and called it a “good perspective”.
Good perspective
— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) June 16, 2025
While some users questioned if Wilson and Isom use the same Artificial Intelligence (AI), others wondered if it was plagiarism or plain SOPs. One user wrote, “The SOPs in such situations is common, and if standard procedures are common, using similar/same verbatim to express thoughts is common too. There could and must be multiple things to criticise AirIndia but this, in my opinion ,is far fetched.”
A couple of days after the crash took place, Air India issued Wilson’s video message in which he said, “First and most importantly, I would like to express our deep sorrow about this event. This is a difficult day for all of us here in India. And it’s now focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families, and loved ones. The injured passengers have been taken by local authorities to the nearest hospitals. We are actively working with the authorities on all emergency response efforts.”
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Faiz Ahmed Kidwai will chair a high-level virtual meeting today with officials from Air India and Air India Express. According to reports, the meeting aims to review preliminary findings and assess airline protocols following the crash of Flight AI-171 on June 12.
