Air India plane crash: Govt appoints high-level committee to probe incident, ascertain 'root cause'

New Delhi: Headed by the Union Home Secretary, the government appointed high-level multi-disciplinary committee probing the Ahmedabad plane crash have been tasked to ascertain the “root cause” of the accident involving Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft and suggest comprehensive guidelines for dealing with such incidents in the future.

Given three months time to submit the report, the panel will have its first meeting on Monday. It will have access to all records, including flight data, cockpit voice recorders, aircraft maintenance records, ATC log and witness testimonies.

The committee, whose proceedings run parallel to the investigations of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), is also allowed to conduct site inspections, interview crew and Air Traffic Controllers as well as collaborate with international agencies if foreign nationals or manufacturers are involved.

The order issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday said that the committee “will not be a substitute” to other enquiries but will “focus on formulating SOPs for preventing and handling such occurrences in the future”, even as some aviation watchers expressed doubts about the high-level panel pre-empting conclusions of other agencies.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has already stated its investigations into the crash while teams of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and others have visited the accident site.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told a press conference on Saturday that the high-level committee will look into "all the theories and other information" that is going around this incident and the composition of the committee shows that people from various backgrounds are included.

The committee includes the Civil Aviation Secretary, Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, representatives from Gujarat Home Department and Gujarat Disaster Response Authority, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner and Directors General Air Force (Inspection and Safety), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The other members of the panel are Intelligence Bureau Special Director, and Director of Directorate of Forensic Science Services and any other member deemed fit by the committee, including aviation experts, accident investigators and legal advisors.

The objective and scope as per the Terms and Reference of the Committee include ascertaining the “root cause” of the crash, as it will assess contributing factors, including “mechanical failure, human error, weather conditions, regulatory compliances and other reasons”.

It has been tasked to recommend necessary improvements and formulate suitable SOPs, which include best international practices, to prevent such incidents in the future.

The committee will also assess emergency response of central and state stakeholders, including rescue operations and coordination among them. It will examine existing guidelines regarding handling such incidents and records of previous crashes for formulating a comprehensive SOP and suggest roles of all agencies to deal with post crash incident handling and management.

It will also suggest policy changes, operational improvements and training enhancements required to recent such occurrences and handle post-crash incident situations.