Ahmedabad Plane Crash Initial Report To Be Made Public This Week: AAIB To Parliament Panel

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will make public this week its preliminary report on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad in which at least 260 people were killed on June 12, top Bureau officials told a Parliamentary panel on Wednesday.

Sources also said that no report has been finalised so far and investigations are underway in one of the worst air disasters in India.

The AAIB officials told the panel that the black box and voice recorder of the aircraft were intact and data was being investigated, the sources said.

They said that the help of foreign players, including aircraft manufacturer Boeing, was sought to carry out detailed and thorough investigations.

The AAIB had initiated an investigation a day after the crash and had constituted a multi-disciplinary team headed by its Director General GVG Yugandhar in line with globally prescribed norms.

The sources said this is the first time such an important investigation is being held in India.

The AAIB chief also responded to queries of several MPs on the deadly plane crash during a day-long meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which oversees the functioning of the Civil Aviation sector.

The meeting of the panel chaired by JD-U MP Sanjay Jha began at 10 AM and ended around 6 PM, with the chiefs of all airlines in the country making a presentation on air safety.

The Committee has members from several parties, including former Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Congress' Kumari Selja, Neeraj Dangi and Imran Pratapgarhi and BJP's Surendra Singh Nagar and Tapir Gao, among others.

Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI 171 en-route to London Gatwick crashed into a medical hostel complex soon after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, killing at least 260 people, including 241 persons who were onboard the plane. One passenger, however, miraculously survived the accident.

While there has been no official comment on the possible timeline for the preliminary report, top sources in AAIB said the initial report will be finalised this week.

Under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) norms, AAIB can submit a preliminary report within 30 days of the accident.

Members cutting across party lines questioned official agencies and private airlines over safety standards being followed by them, an issue that has been brought into sharp focus after the Ahmedabad plane crash last month.

Sources said that it was pointed out during the meeting that there has been an over eight per cent drop in domestic airline traffic and less than one per cent in international traffic in India after the Ahmedabad crash.

Some members also raised the issue of 'haphazard' growth around airports in the country including dense populations living around several airports due to rapid urbanisation and growth, the sources said.

It was also pointed out by some members that the Air Traffic Controllers in India are handling too much traffic, much above the international norms which could lead to human errors and result in a major disaster, they said.

They said there was concern among some members over a large number of vacancies in aviation regulator DGCA, while a few others spoke about the agency not implementing several of the earlier recommendations of the committee.

The DGCA, the sources said, was told to fill up the posts soon, as almost half the posts were lying vacant currently.

Several official agencies, including the Airport Authority of India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), made presentations before the committee during the day-long meeting.

The Secretary, Civil Aviation, summed up the day's developments and assured the members that aviation safety was the primary concern of the government.

Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson was among the representatives of airlines who are attending the meeting, apart from other stakeholders. Many of these officials were part of the another parliamentary committee meeting held on Tuesday.

The DGCA had said on Tuesday it will put in place a mechanism to curb the surge in air ticket prices, recently witnessed during the Maha Kumbh and post-Pahalgam terror attack, as the issue coupled with concerns over air safety after the Ahmedabad plane crash, dominated proceedings at the Public Accounts Committee.

On June 26, the civil aviation ministry said AAIB promptly initiated an investigation and constituted a multi-disciplinary team headed by the AAIB chief on June 13 in line with prescribed norms.

The team includes an aviation medicine specialist, an Air Traffic Control (ATC) officer, and representatives from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it had said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a high-level multi-disciplinary committee, headed by the Union Home Secretary, is examining the causes that led to the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, and will also suggest comprehensive guidelines to prevent such incidents in the future.