Officials from airlines, AAI, airport operators to face questions about Air India plane crash this week

New Delhi: Senior officials dealing with civil aviation in the country will face questions from MPs this week about the June 12 plane crash involving Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, as they are summoned by two Parliamentary panels to discuss various issues related to the sector.

Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha will appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport Tourism and Culture headed by senior JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha on Wednesday to brief the MPs on ‘Overall Review of Safety in Civil Aviation Sector’.

Sources said that the secretary is likely to be asked about the crash which killed all 242 but one person on board the ill-fated flight to London Gatwick and around 20 people who were in a medical college hostel building on which the plane fell.

He is likely to be asked about the cause of the accident, the status of investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the compensation paid to the victims and steps taken to ensure that no such incident takes place in the future, sources said.

On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee headed by senior Congress leader K C Venugopal is meeting on the issue of ‘Levy and Regulation of Fees, Tariffs, User Charges etc., on Public Infrastructure and Other Public Utilities’ and has summoned officials from various civil aviation related organisations.

Though the agenda is not directly related to the accident, sources said the MPs are likely to ask the officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other related organisations, including the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) about the crash.

Besides the Ministry and the DGCA, the panel has also called officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Bureau of Civil Aviation (Security), AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Ltd (AAICLAS), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA), airport operators and airlines.

Following the June 12 crash, the DGCA has put in place a Comprehensive Special Audit framework for a "360-degree" evaluation of the country's aviation ecosystem and transcend the current practice of siloed assessment.

On June 24, the DGCA said surveillance carried out at major airports after the Air India plane crash showed several discrepancies. It included a plane operating on a domestic route with "worn tyres", a runway with a "faded" central line marking, "unserviceable" bag trollies and life vests "not properly secured" beneath designated seats.