The flight was part of the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian nationals stranded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DGCA designated Calicut Airport as a "critical airfield", which means that only the captain (and not the first officer) can perform takeoffs and landings there.

[7] Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a member of a safety advisory committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, said in 2011 that Calicut Airport is "unsafe".

[failed verification] Calicut Airport also lacked an engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS), which could have prevented the accident.

[11] Conditions at Calicut Airport were investigated in 2019, following a tailstrike during the landing of Air India Express aircraft.

The investigation revealed several safety hazards, including multiple cracks in the runways, pools of stagnant water, and excessive rubber deposits.

[29][30] The aircraft failed to stop before the end of the tabletop runway and plunged 9–10.5 m (30–35 ft) into a gorge, splitting the fuselage into two sections upon impact.

[43][44][45] The chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, announced a state funeral for late Wing commander Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe in Mumbai.

[50] Following the incident, local people from the surrounding Karipur village rushed to the accident site to rescue trapped victims from the aircraft,[51] followed by 40 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who were guarding the perimeter of the airport, a quick reaction team and the Chief Airport Security Officer.

[59][60][61] The airline had engaged a US-based firm, Kenyon International, to recover the baggage along with Angels of Air India.

[68] According to Yeshwant Shenoy, a lawyer fighting for safer airports in India, the DGCA should have put restrictions on conditions when airlines could land or take off.

[69] He filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Kerala High Court after the accident, to shut down operations of Calicut airport as it is not compliant with air regulations.

The aircraft was at 176 knots (326 km/h) at an altitude of approximately 450 feet (140 m) above the surface of runway 10, which is not considered ideal for short finals during poor weather conditions.

[77][78] The tailwind, rubber deposits and wet runway affecting the braking performance of the aircraft are thought to be contributory factors to the accident.

[8] Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Puri, in a press conference at Kozhikode on 8 August, said that there had been sufficient fuel onboard for the aircraft to have flown to a diversion airport.

[79][13][80][81] Several concerns were raised on the inquiry on this incident, by Captain Mohan Ranganathan, Yeshwant Shenoy and others, that it might get covered up and the truth would never surface.

[8][11][69] Royal Aeronautical Society fellow and aviation safety expert Amit Singh alleged that evidence in the accident site was being tampered, as few unidentified people were spotted near the wreckage, thus asked for an open investigation.

[85] A five-member committee was set up by AAIB on 13 August, to investigate the incident, with the final report to be submitted on 13 January 2021.

The committee headed by Captain S.S. Chahar, former designated examiner on Boeing 737 Next Generation, was to also provide recommendations to avoid such accidents in future.

[86][87][88] The civil aviation ministry cited delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and granted a two-month extension to the AAIB to submit its draft final probe report on the accident.