Air India Express crash | Investigation team to include Air Force personnel, private experts: Report

The government’s investigation team probing the Air India Express (AIE) plane crash in Kozhikode will include retired and serving personnel from the Indian Air Force (IAF), besides experienced private sector chiefs, aviation psychologists and meteorologists.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is the regulatory body in charge of the probe, but the Centre also wants external experts to be a part of the team, government officials told the Business Standard.

Among the IAF personnel approached include retired Chief of Western Command – Air Marshall B Suresh, serving Air Marshall Rajeev Sachdeva, the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff and officials from the Centre’s air intelligence wing – Aviation Research Centre, the report said.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The Centre has written to the personnel seeking their consent to be included, and to the civil aviation and defence ministries for relieving these officials from duty during the course of the investigation period, it added.

The decision to include IAF personnel was taken because the government needed people experienced with flying the Boeing 737 on the team, and the air force has a few of those aircraft in its fleet, the report stated.

The official said this is the worst air crash in India in a decade and there is a need to restore public confidence in the investigation, especially since there were fatalities and with the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, inclusion of private sector chiefs, aviation psychologists and meteorologists will be done as part of regulations mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).