Pilots' grouping ALPA-India mulls legal course to be part of Air India plane crash probe
The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA-India) represents over 800 pilots of airlines and helicopter companies in the country. It is a member of the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Association (IFALPA), which claims to have 1 lakh pilots from across 100 countries as its members.
Against the backdrop of the AAIB's preliminary report, representatives of ALPA-India will meet officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday to discuss various issues.
"The preliminary report by the AAIB has been put up on the website. It does not have anyone's signature on it. We want transparency. We had asked for our representation in the investigation panel," ALPA-India President Sam Thomas told PTI.
Thomas stressed that its members have domain expertise and can contribute meaningfully in the investigation of the
Air India plane crash
.
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The association is mulling legal recourse to ensure that its members are made a part of the investigation team.
His comments come at a time when people from certain quarters are opining that fuel switches could have been cut off by a pilot, a proposition that has been strongly rejected by pilots' groupings.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in its preliminary report on the crash that killed 260 people on June 12 said the fuel switches to the engines were cut off within a gap of 1 second immediately after takeoff and caused confusion in the cockpit of Air India flight AI 171.
India's second largest airline by domestic market share, Air India is owned by the Tata Group.
Citing cockpit voice recording, the 15-page preliminary report, released on Saturday, said one pilot asked why the switch was cut off and the other pilot responded that he did not do so.
"We are once again surprised at the secrecy surrounding these investigations. We are also reiterating the fact that suitably qualified personnel are not taken on board for these crucial investigations," ALPA-India said in a statement on Saturday.
"We feel that the investigation is being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots and we strongly object to this line of thought," it had said.
Last month, IFALPA offered its 'technical expertise' to the Indian civil aviation authorities in the Ahmedabad plane crash probe being conducted by the AAIB.
In a letter to AAIB Director General G V G Yugandhar, the federation had said it was ready to provide expert technical and other forms of assistance, share global best practices and offer personnel to collaborate closely with the investigators.
A five-member team appointed by the AAIB is probing the crash, which is also the first where a Boeing 787 Dreamliner accident resulted in hull loss.
"Experienced pilots, engineers, aviation medicine specialist, aviation psychologist and flight recorder specialists have been taken on board as subject matter experts to assist the investigation in the area of their domain expertise," AAIB said in the preliminary report. PTI
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