India, June 14 -- A year after the Air India flight 171 crashed in Ahmedabad, the families of the 260 killed in the accident still await answers. Closure is a far cry. The accident's central question - whether the fuel supply to both engines of the aircraft was cut by human hand or a fault in the machinery - surely needs a thorough, careful investigation. But after a yearlong wait, the bland bureaucratese of the five-paragraph statement from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) - giving very few updates on the investigation's progress and just a broad overview - does precious little for the grieving families of victims.

Apart from saying that the inquiry was proceeding across aircraft systems, flight recorder data, and e...