On Day 1 of the Monsoon session of the Parliament Monday, a series of questions were raised on the ongoing Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau-led (AAIB) investigation into the June 12 Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad airport which claimed 260 lives including 241 of the 242 onboard and 19 others on the ground.
Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, addressing the Upper House during the Question Hour, said the AAIB is “totally unbiased” and is carrying out a definitive and rule-based probe.
“We want to stand with truth, not anything else… we want to find out what exactly happened in the Air India plane crash and that will come out only after AAIB final probe report,” Naidu said, addressing speculations over the AAIB’s preliminary probe report on the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick bound plane, released on July 12.
Naidu also said that in a first of its kind instance, the AAIB has been successful in decoding data from black boxes of the crashed Air India plane in India itself.
The autonomous body’s team probing the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 crash is a multidisciplinary team including its AAIB Director General GVG Yugandhar, an aviation medicine specialist, an air traffic control officer, and representatives from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
While the initial report came under the scanner for being worded beyond the mandate and giving additional details, but selectively, chief Yugandhar said: “The purpose of the AAIB’s investigation and preliminary report is to provide information about ‘WHAT’ happened… At this stage, it is too early to reach to any definite conclusions. The investigation…is still not complete. The Final Investigation Report will come out with root causes and recommendations,” The full report is expected in about a year’s time.
On June 12 (Thursday), the Boeing plane—operating flight AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick—crashed moments after take-off, killing 260 people, including 241 of the 242 on board and 19 on the ground. According to the 15-page report, the flight lasted “around 30 seconds” between lift-off and crash.
