Silverlining assembles nine partners to back Emporium Pictures Air India crash doc

Air India Flight 171 Tragedy: How Safe Is Your Plane?

UK-based independent production finance broker and distributor Silverlining Rights has brought together nine international funding partners to greenlight a fast-turnaround doc exploring the recent Air India flight disaster.

Air India Flight 171 Tragedy: How Safe Is Your Plane? (1×60’) investigates what might have led to the accident at Ahmedabad Airport on June 12 which killed all on board apart from one survivor, who was miraculously able to walk away, along with dozens of people on the ground.

Producer Emporium Pictures has secured exclusive interviews with experts, victims’ families and whistleblowers, along with user-generated content and archive footage. The doc will aim to unpack every aspect of the crash and examine possible causes, including engine and electrical system failures, pilot error, Air India’s maintenance programme and even hacking.

Drawing on 18 months of research into manufacturing problems at Boeing and the 787 Dreamliner and other planes’ safety records, the film also explores airline safety more widely.

Silverlining has brought in nine funding and coproduction partners, led by Channel 4 (UK) which will title the programme Air India Crash: What Went Wrong?, and an as-yet unnamed US Network, alongside SBS (Australia), DR (Denmark), DPG (Belgium), CNN (Portugal), HOT8 (Israel), Movistar (Spain) and a pan South-east Asian channel. The documentary is due to be delivered next month.

Silverlining has previously partnered with Emporium Productions to provide co-financing for several internationally successful fast-turnaround documentaries, including The Sinking of a Superyacht: How Safe Is Your Voyage? (1×60’), following the loss of the superyacht Bayesian; and Turbulence: How Safe Is Your Flight? (1×60’), which looked into the fatal air turbulence suffered by a Singapore Airlines flight and the safety implications for air travellers.