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On 12 June 2025, a terrible aircraft accident in Ahmedabad, Gujarat shook the entire country. Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was flying from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatvic Airport, crashed in a few minutes. In this tragic accident, 280 people lost their lives, which not only broke the families, but also raised serious questions on the security standards in the aviation industry. Now in the investigation of this accident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has blamed three senior Air India officials, including Payal Arora’s name.

On 12 June 2025, a terrible aircraft accident in Ahmedabad, Gujarat shook the entire country. Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was flying from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatvic Airport, crashed in a few minutes. In this tragic accident, 280 people lost their lives, which not only broke the families, but also raised serious questions on the security standards in the aviation industry. Now in the investigation of this accident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has blamed three senior Air India officials, including Payal Arora’s name. After all, who is Payal Arora, and why the incident fell on him? Come, let’s understand this story deeply.

DGCA’s strictness: officials fell

The DGCA took quick and strict action after the incident. The investigation found that serious negligence was taken in the crew’s scheduling and rostering, for which three senior officials were convicted. These include Chura Singh (Divisional Vice President), Pinky Mittal (Chief Manager, Crew Scheduling), and Payal Arora (Crew Scheduling-Planning). The DGCA ordered Air India to remove these officers from immediate rostering responsibilities and initiate disciplinary action against them. Also, these three were transferred to non-operating roles and Air India was asked to submit the action report within 10 days. This action shows that DGCA is not in the mood to compromise with aviation security.

Payal Arora: A look at her professional journey

Payal Arora has been active in the aviation industry for more than seven years and is working from Gurugram, Haryana. He worked as a senior associate (training compliance and audit) in Air India, where his responsibilities included important work to the training and compliance of the crew. Payal led the DGCA-Anupalist training programs, audited largely, and always kept the training material updated. Their efforts led to an increase of 30% in training perfection rate and 25% in compliance- events.

Earlier, Payal worked in Vistara (Tata SIA Airlines) from May 2018 to November 2024. There he led the training and licensing of the cockpit crew and gave DGCA-innovative training to more than 200 cockpit crew members. In addition, he also served as an international flight attendant, where he demonstrated leadership and crisis management in over 80 flights. Skills such as organizational leadership, risk management, and crisis management are clearly visible in Payal’s career.

Cause of accident: What was Payal’s mistake?

DGCA investigation revealed that there were many serious flaws in the crew scheduling behind the accident. Payal Arora is alleged to have made crew couples against the rules, some of which were neither authorized nor trained adequately. In addition, many pilots and cabin crew were deployed in frequent flights without any adequate rest, which is a clear violation of aviation safety rules. The DGCA called it a “systemic failure”, which means that the problem was not only the fault of one or two persons, but the weakness of the entire system. Payal Arora’s role in this system also came under investigation.

Payal’s sentence and new start

Payal Arora has been removed from all operations and safety works following DGCA’s order. He was transferred to a non-operating role, and Air India was directed to start an internal investigation against him. After this action, Payal updated his status “Open to Work” on LinkedIn, which shows that he is now looking for a new job. Given his experience and skills, it is not impossible for him to get new opportunities in the aviation industry, but this incident has a profound impact on his professional image.