Kozhikode plane crash: Five-member inquiry panel formed, report expected in 5 months

Aircraft Accident Investigation Board on Thursday set up a five-member panel, led by Capt S S Chahar, a formerly designated examiner of Boeing 737NG planes, to probe the Air India Express crash landing at Kozhikode on August 7.

Chahar will be the investigator-in-charge to inquire into the circumstances of this accident, an AAIB order said.

The investigator on-charge will complete its inquiry and submit a report to the AAIB within five-month, the order signed by AAIB Director-General Aurobindo Handa said.

Operations expert Ved Prakash, senior aircraft maintenance engineer (B737) Mukul Bhardwaj, aviation medicine expert Y S Dahiya, AAIB Deputy Director Jasbir Singh Larhga will assist Chahar in the inquiry.

Meanwhile, two pilots’ unions – Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) – wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri requesting him to convene an urgent meeting over flight safety and working conditions of pilots of Air India, Air India Express and Alliance Air.

The letter flagged the pilots’ pay cuts and said that flight safety and the working conditions of the pilots of Air India group companies cannot be seen in isolation in the background of the crash of an Air India Express flight in Kozhikode on August 7.

“Pending the findings of the official investigations, may we highlight the fact that flight safety and the working conditions of the pilots of Air India group companies cannot be seen in isolation. The recently imposed policies implemented by the Air India Board imposing steep, disproportionate and retrospective pay cuts specifically targeting pilots across Air India as well as Air India Express and Alliance Air are one such example,” the letter said.