DGCA vows unbiased Air India crash probe

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is conducting a probe into Friday evening’s crash of the Air India Express Dubai-Kozhikode flight at the Kozhikode International Airport, on Sunday said that the black box of the ill-fated flight had been brought and kept at its office for examination. Director-General of DGCA Anil Kumar said that exact cause of the incident will be ascertained only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe.

New Delhi: Hours after the black boxes of the Air India Express flight, that crash-landed at Kozhikode Airport on Friday, was brought to Delhi and kept at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) lab for examination, Director-General of DGCA Anil Kumar on Sunday said that transcripts from the black boxes would be recovered soon.

While speaking to reporters, Kumar said that only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe, it will be possible to tell what exactly happened.

"Soon we will have all transcripts from recovered black boxes. We are also going to talk to Boeing to examine the aircraft's original equipment and check for defects. Only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe, can we tell what exactly happened," he said.

"It was an unfortunate incident. The investigation has started. Independent body, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is investigating the incident as per the guidelines laid by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The initial report said aircraft touchdown 3000 ft overshot the runway. It was a late touchdown. There was a light rain following which aircraft slipped and went down by 10 feet. There are multiple things to be investigated before concluding the reason for establishing the causes of the crash. it could relate aircraft, airport, human error, weather," he added.

After the Mangalore air crash, a committee gave suggestions regarding table-top runways. For the Calicut runway, it was suggested to improve its pavement strength, increase its runway and safety area, Kumar said.

"Airport Authority of India (AAI) had recarpeted the runway and its strengthening was done in 2016," he said.

At least 18 people including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident. However, the four-cabin crew members were safe, said the Air India Express in a statement. The Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on Friday late evening.

Meanwhile, the Director-General said that resumption of full-fledged international flight operations will depend on the state of coronavirus spread all over the world.

"A lot of countries are still enforcing quarantine measures and it will take some time to have fully operative international flights. Some international air operations have started already. Passengers are allowed to go from and come to India. It depends on the bubble arrangement we have with countries like UK, US, France," he said.

India has started creating "air bubbles" with some countries to ensure eligible people can continue to travel directly to and from there on airlines of both sides, till resumption of regular scheduled flights in a COVID-19 post-pandemic world.

ANI