Will be transparent in our communication on plane crash: Tata Group Chairman

Mumbai: Tata Group will not retreat from its responsibilities, from doing what is right even though it is a "difficult" time, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Friday while emphasizing that the group, which owns Air India, will be transparent in its communication on the plane crash.

In an internal communication to the employees, he also said that when Tata Sons took over Air India, ensuring the safety of its passengers was its first and foremost priority and "there was no compromising on it." The communication came a day after Air India's London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed soon after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard in one of the country's worst air disasters.

"This is a very difficult moment. What occurred yesterday was inexplicable, and we are in shock and mourning. To lose a single person we know is a tragedy, but for so many deaths to occur at once is incomprehensible.

"This is one of the darkest days in Tata Group's history. Words are no consolation right now, but my thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the people who died and were injured in the crash. We are here for them," Chandrasekaran said.

"I want to say that, like you, we want to understand what happened. We don't know right now, but we will," he said.

In the past 24 hours, investigative teams from the UK and the US have arrived in Ahmedabad to investigate the crash, he said adding "they have our full cooperation, and (we) will be completely transparent about the findings." "We owe it to the families and loved ones, to our pilots and crew, and to you. Tata Group takes its responsibility to society seriously, and that includes being open about what occurred yesterday," he said.

He said that right now, the group's very human instinct is to look for explanations that make sense of the calamity and that there was plenty of speculation all around."Some of it may be right, some of it may be wrong. I want to urge patience." "Why this routine flight turned into a calamity is something trained investigators will help us understand when their work is complete. Once we have verified facts, we will be transparent in our communication about how this tragedy took place," Chandrasekaran said.

"We built this group on trust and care. It is a difficult moment, but we will not retreat from our responsibilities, from doing what is right. We will carry this loss. We will not forget," the Tata Sons chairman said. PTI IAS RAM ANU ANU