Last month’s fatal crash of Air India Flight 171 has reignited a decades-old debate over video monitoring in airline cockpits after International Air Transport Association Director-General Willie Walsh said there is now a “strong argument” for installing cameras alongside existing flight-data and voice recorders. Walsh, speaking in Singapore on Wednesday, noted that video could help clarify pilot actions during the disaster, which saw the Boeing 787-8 plunge into buildings shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on 12 June. A preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found the jet’s engine-fuel switches had been moved to “cut-off,” killing 241 of the 242 people aboard and 19 people on the ground. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has urged mandatory cockpit cameras since 2000, and Australia’s transport watchdog said video proved “invaluable” in a 2023 helicopter probe. Pilot unions including ALPA and the Allied Pilots Association remain opposed, warning of privacy breaches and potential misuse of footage. India’s investigators aim to publish a final report within a year. While Walsh said IATA will wait for full findings before taking a formal stance, he argued that additional visual data would “significantly assist” future accident inquiries, putting fresh pressure on regulators such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to revisit long-stalled proposals for cockpit imaging systems.