AAIB totally unbiased, carrying out rule-based probe into AI plane crash, says Civil Aviation Minister

"We want to stand by the truth. We want to find out what exactly happened and that is only going to be coming out once the final report (of AAIB) is placed," Naidu said.

New Delhi: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) probing the Air India 'Dreamliner' crash is "totally unbiased" and is conducting a "definitive and thorough rule-based" investigation that conforms to international standards, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu informed Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Responding to questions during Question Hour, he said the country has a very robust aviation safety mechanism.

"We want to stand by the truth. We want to find out what exactly happened and that is only going to be coming out once the final report (of AAIB) is placed. We have to respect the process of investigation and once that process has happened, then we can talk about what happened, how it happened and then corrective measures (can be taken)," Naidu said.

Naidu on preliminary report

Referring to media reports about the probe, he said it is a preliminary report and it cannot address all issues. What the AAIB has addressed in the preliminary report is based on facts found in the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, he said, referring to speculation about the role of one of the pilots of the Boeing 787-8 'Dreamliner' that crashed on June 12.

"I can say this in the House and to the people of the country that the AAIB has a very definitive and thorough rule-based process. They are very transparently looking at the (investigation) process right now and they are totally unbiased," Naidu said answering supplementary questions of MPs, including BJP's Ashok Chavan.

He also said there have been multiple reports not only in India but also in the Western media, trying to air their own viewpoints and narratives. 

"I want to tell you that the way we are seeing the investigation is through the facts. We want to stand by the truth and not what is happening with the pilots, Boeing, Air India or any other stakeholder," he said, emphasising that definitive answers and future corrective measures can only be made after the AAIB final report is ready," he said.

"AAIB successful in decoding data"

He said the AAIB has been successful in decoding the data from the black boxes of the crashed plane and this is for the first time that India decided to decode the black boxes within the country. "We have done it successfully," he said.

9 show cause notices

Separately in a written reply to CPI(M) MP John Brittas, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said nine show cause notices have been issued to Air India in connection with five identified safety violations in the past six months and enforcement action has been completed. To another question, "no adverse trend" has been reported in reliability reports of Air India in respect of crashed aircraft.

Asked whether sabotage angle is being investigated, he said, "every aspect is being looked into for determining the probable cause(s)/contributory factor(s) leading to the accident."