Air India 171 plane crash: Victim families who hired US law firm to file RTI plea for flight recorder data, other info

Indian Express

3 days ago

The victim families of the Air India 171 air crash of June 12, who have engaged US law firm Beasley Allen, will file applications under Right to Information (RTI) act seeking raw data on the crash, the firm's Principal Attorney Mike Andrews told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
The RTI applications will be filed with the 'entities who have the FDR (Flight Data Recorder) data', Andrews, who is concluding his second visit to Gujarat on Wednesday, said.
Andrews, whose law firm will make 'direct appeals' to Air India and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) for information sourced from the site of the crash that killed 241 of the 242 passengers and crew and 19 on the ground, said that over 80 victim families, including passengers and those who lost their lives on ground, had signed contracts with the firm so far.
The firm is looking to do a 'reconstruction' of the crash and could proceed under the US product liability law once it gets the data.
There were 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese, one Canadian and 169 Indian nationals on board the Gatwick (London)-bound Boeing 787 that went down soon after takeoff, crashing into the mess building of the BJ Medical College at Meghaninagar in Ahmedabad.
'We have some victims who were cooking food in the medical school, some who were out serving tea, and some who were on the scooters passing by. Those families highlight the fact that aviation safety affects everybody. They never bought plane tickets. They never expected it to be involved in an aviation crash,' said Andrews, with rakhis tied on his wrist by a Diu family which lost a daughter in the crash.
Reiterating that his focus would be to 'find out what happened', Andrews said this is a first among the air crash cases he has handled in 30 years where there is a survivor and several ground casualties.
He said he met the lone survivor, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh at his home in Diu 'briefly' — 'not as his attorney'.
Vishwash lost his brother Ajay in the crash. His family is not among those who have signed up with Beasley Allen.
'The goal and the focus is to find out why and what happened. We do that after getting the data. First, we figure out what happened, and if it shows that Boeing is at fault or there's a manufacturing defect or a design defect, and those are different… we'll know if there's a claim for the product failure. That's my area of expertise. If that's the case, we would anticipate filing individual actions in the United States in federal court on behalf of each family,' the attorney said.
According to Andrews, though the crash site is here, the company (Boeing) is American and thus the US product liability law would apply.
'If it is a defect, the company is in the US, the executives, engineers, decisions, the paperwork, the witnesses that matter to the engineering decisions, those are all in the United States. That is why it is so important to bring these cases there, because the goal of this is to fix accountability,' he told The Indian Express.
Andrews said the findings of this investigation will decide what to fix. 'If it is a pilot issue, if it's a pilot error, if it's a maintenance problem, if it's something local to Air India, it should certainly bring about changes there. If it is a design problem or a maintenance problem with the design of the aircraft, and if this is a problem that's shown up in previous incidents, then something has to be done immediately to change that'.
Andrews said he would not 'interfere' with the AAIB probe into the crash. 'We don't want to interfere with what they're doing. We'll file letters to them. The families or us on their behalf will seek information under the RTI Act. Beyond that, we know that there are potential petitions available to us through various courts. We would like to avoid that, if at all possible,' he said.
He added that the firm was working with local counsel to 'determine the applicability of RTI to the various entities'.
Visiting the site again
On Tuesday evening, Andrews was part of a candlelight vigil held at the site of the air crash with some 25-30 victim families.
Comparing it to his visit in July, Andrews recalled how the last time he was at the 'exact spot where the survivor walked out' and how it was cordoned off and 'really really quiet'. On the day marking two months of the crash, the cordon was lifted and the area had 'come back to life' with the traffic, he said.
'There were a lot of emotions in that group, you know, one of them was telling me: This is the first time I am seeing the place where my husband was killed. And I mean, that's powerful to hear somebody say that I don't think there's a thing like healing or closure, but a new normal that you're dealing with,' he said.
Speaking about his role and interest in the case, Andrews said he would not approach anything with an agenda.
'I am curious. I want to know what happened. And after that, we'll know if somebody's accountable and who is responsible,' Andrews said.
According to the Beasley Allen contract terms, there is no cost upfront but in the event there is a 'recovery', there is a 30% 'contingency fee in the end', says Andrews, who is headed to the UK to meet more victim families.