4 days ago
US law firm to represent 65 families who lost kin in Air India crash; preliminary report creates confusion, says lawyer
Beasley Allen, a prominent US-based law firm, will represent at least 65 families of the victims of the London Gatwick-bound Air India 171 crash in Ahmedabad that killed 241 on board and 19 on the ground on June 12, Mike Andrews, Principal Attorney from the firm, told The Indian Express.
Andrews, who is already in Gujarat and was in Surat when The Indian Express spoke to him, said the preliminary report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the crash did not share the full cockpit voice recorder data, which 'creates confusion and unfairly blames the pilots'. He said systems in 'such automated aircraft' are complex and 'could be activated by computer commands'.
In the past, Andrews had represented families of aviation disaster victims, including victims of the 2019 crash of the Ethiopian Airlines-run Boeing 737 MAX flight 302 that killed all 149 passengers and eight crew members.
In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express Friday, Andrews who has been to the crash site at Meghaninagar during an earlier visit to Ahmedabad, said that the priority would be to call for transparency 'and release of the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).'
Andrews said, 'We are also calling for the documents and are currently researching the necessary steps to file a petition (to get them released).'
The 15-page report, released on the night of July 11, stated that the two engine fuel control switches onboard transitioned from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' position within a second of each other, moments after lift-off. One of the two pilots is recorded as asking the other why he cut off the fuel, to which the other pilot responded by saying he did not.
The crash saw only one survivor, British citizen from Diu Viswash Kumar Ramesh, while the victims included former chief minister Vijay Rupani.
Referring to the video of the crash shot by an Ahmedabad teenager, Andews said, 'It seems obvious that the plane appears to be normal during the taxi and take-off procedure; something begins to go wrong immediately after takeoff… The question that we have is — when did the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) deploy and why did it deploy at that point? Because the plane obviously begins to lose thrust, power and altitude almost immediately after takeoff. So the question becomes — why did that occur?'
The RAT deploys in a Boeing 787 automatically when there is a major system failure and it is designed to provide power in emergency situations.
On precedents where such FDR and CDR data have been released in the cases that he has handled in the past, Andrews said, 'Typically, any data that is released under those circumstances occurs during the litigation, and it's generally not made available to the public. But, in certain instances, it can be released to the attorneys and experts who are handling those cases.'
He confirmed that such data was available in the Ethiopian Airlines crash case. He said it helped determine what happened, and was used by the parties concerned. 'This is important to cite because that (Ethiopian Airlines crash) was very similar to this (AI 171). Like, not the problem with the aircraft, but in the sense that, for example, everyone on board that flight lost their lives. Also similar in the sense that it was also Boeing and also a commercial flight. And it involved uncommanded or erroneous actions by an automated computer system,' Andrews said.
'If it was determined that the aircraft or its components are defective, then we would make preparations to file individual cases in the United States against Boeing and/or which component part manufacturers may be at fault,' he added.
Describing his earlier visit to the crash site, he termed it as a 'very large crash scene', which was 'cleaned up' by the time he was there. He said he met some of the families in Ahmedabad who 'had reached out' to him. 'We also met with people who were at the scene. We met with people who were there on the ground including those who were present in the (medical) college area,' he told The Indian Express.
'But when you are there, you certainly feel the sense of magnitude and sense of loss from what happened,' he added.
Andrews said he was currently focussing 'primarily (on) passengers on the aircraft' and people who were on the ground, and not representing crew members. He reiterated that the release of data to understand exactly what happened, how and why was his focus.
When asked what would happen to the litigation in case the final report concludes it was pilot error, Andrews said, 'Obviously, we would first want to see what the basis of that report would be, and whether or not all of the technical data have been considered again. That's why it's so important for us to see that raw data so that our experts can also make their own conclusions. We want to make sure that any expert report that is issued includes all of the potential data and information that should be considered, but if, in the end, it is determined to be solely pilot error, then the potential exists for Montreal Convention (which establishes liability on the airlines) claims against Air India.'
Ahmedabad-based entrepreneur Trupti Soni, who is among those who has signed on Beasley Allen to represent their case, told The Indian Express, 'As discussed with the law firm, first we would be filing a case against Boeing in the US courts, which will be followed by a case against Air India.'
Trupti lost her three family members – brother Swapnil, 45, and his wife Yoga, 44, and her sister-in-law Alpa, 55 – in the crash.
