E-Paper
'Assigning blame before...': Indian pilots body dissatisfied with Air India crash report
The pilots body objected to the exclusion of pilot representatives from the investigation and called for a thorough probe before "assigning blame".
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction with the preliminary probe report on the June 12 Air India plane crash released last week.
The pilots' body objected to the exclusion of pilot representatives from the investigation and called for a thorough probe before "assigning blame".
"Assigning blame before a thorough, transparent, and data-driven investigation is both premature and irresponsible. Such speculative commentary undermines the professionalism of highly trained crew members and causes undue distress to their families and colleagues," the FIP said in a statement.
The remarks came days after an Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) report revealed that both fuel control switches of the AI171 London-bound flight that crashed in Ahmedabad were shifted from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' within seconds of takeoff.
The report also mentioned a conversation between the two pilots, Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder, in the cockpit. One pilot asked, “Why did you cut off?”, and the other responded, “I did not do so".
The probe report had fuelled speculation about what may have led to the crash. The FIP statement also objected to the various interpretations of the probe, and alleged that the report relied selectively on paraphrased cockpit voice recordings to "suggest pilot error".
"The report, as released, lacks comprehensive data and appears to rely selectively on paraphrased cockpit voice recordings to suggest pilot error and question the professional competence and integrity of the flight crew. This approach is neither objective nor complete," the statement read, urging people to not lend credence to any conclusions based on initial findings.
The probe report narrowed focus on the operations of a fuel control switch, following which India's civil aviation regulator DGCA also ordered an inspection of the locking mechanism of the switches across Boeing 787 and 737 planes.
Air India later said its engineers completed the inspection and found “no issues” with the fuel switches.
The Ahmedabad-London Air India flight crashed within seconds of take-off from the airport on June 12, killing 260 people, including 241 passengers on board. The preliminary probe report by the AAIB was released exactly a month later on July 12.
