3 Months Given To High Level Committee To Investigate Air India Plane Crash

New Delhi: The Civil Aviation Ministry on Saturday informed that a three-month time has been given to the a high level committee to investigate the Air India plane crash.

Addressing its first press conference after Air India plane crashed on June 12 with 242 onboard, the Aviation Ministry informed that a high-level committee was constituted immediately after the accident comprising of Home Secretary as the Chairman of the Committee, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Additional Secretary from MHA, one representative from the State of Gujarat where the incident actually happened, representative from State Disaster Response Authority, Gujarat, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, DG Inspection and Safety from the Indian Air Force, DG BCAS, DG DGCA, Special Director from IB and Director from the Directorate of Forensic Sciences Services.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu who was also present during the presser said, “The composition of the high-level committee involves people from various backgrounds and the people we feel who can bring in a lot of expertise and value to the committee which is going to investigate in a holistic way into the incident.”

"And we have put a time limit of three months for them to sit down, talk to various stakeholders and involve and discuss with any other important expert that is necessary as per their investigation...," the Union Minister informed.

In another statement, Union Minister Kinjarapu added, “It is very heart-wrenching to see the stories of the people who have lost their lives... We have instructed Air India to facilitate the process of assisting the families of the passengers in whatever way is required. The DNA testing is also happening on one side so that the bodies can be identified and given to the respective families. The government of Gujarat is coordinating with that. Once the DNA testing is confirmed, the bodies are being given to the respective families and we are hoping that the process also gets finished as soon as possible, but the documentation and the procedure need to be followed. We are ensuring that there is no lapse in the process or the protocol that needs to be followed...”

Emphasising upon the safety standards in the aviation industry, the Union Minister added, “We have very strict safety standards in the country... When the incident happened, we also felt that there is a need to do an extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 Series. DGCA has also given an order to do the extended surveillance for the 787 planes. There are 34 in our Indian aircraft fleet today. I believe that 8 have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done...”

Meanwhile, speaking on the high level committee to probe Ahmedabad Plane Crash, Air Force Group Captain (retd), Uttam Kumar Devnath said, “The government has made a big decision to check this accident through a terrorist angle, sabotage angle, technical angle, operations angle, and pilot error angle. It is also possible that this accident might have been caused by a bird hit. That's why the government sent top investigators from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to Ahmedabad. They will take possession of the digital flight data recorder. Similarly, a cockpit voice recorder has also been found and will be examined. Apart from this, they will also go where the debris  of the crashed flight is and take samples from aviation turbine fuel...”

Sharing his thoughts on the tragic plane crash, Veteran Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said, “Looking at the aircraft conditions, the way aircraft has called and sank into the ground, it appears at a very critical stage of flight, transition from ground to air, there has been loss of engine power. Probably both engines have lost power... And it happened at a very critical stage. As a result, it crashed. The second thing (probability) is fuel contamination, which has occurred in the past as well...”