1 yr later, Kerala crash probe report yet to come
MUMBAI: A year after an Air India Express plane crashed at Kozhikode in Kerala, killing 20 people including two pilots, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is yet to release a preliminary report on the cause of the mishap. Recently, the Centre informed Parliament that the report is likely to be released by the end of August.
On August 7, 2020, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft arriving from Dubai with 190 people on board, overshot the runway at Kozhikode International Airport and broke into pieces. On August 13, the AAIB, which comes under the civil aviation ministry, announced the setting up of a five-member team to probe the circumstances that led to the plane crash. In a statement, the bureau said that the investigator-in-charge will complete its inquiry and submit the report within five months.
A year later, the probe is yet to be completed and the cause of the crash remains unknown.
On August 5 this year, the
Centre informed Parliament that the AAIB probe is in “progress” and is likely to be completed by the end of the month.
In a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for civil aviation V K Singh said the final compensation offers had been made to all next of kin of the deceased but none of the “next of kin has sent their acceptance as of date”.
According to experts, the findings of any probe report, besides fixing responsibility and accountability, also help in taking corrective action and measures to prevent similar mishaps.
“The preliminary report of an accident is supposed to be out in two weeks. However, there has been no status on it (Kozhikode crash report).
The AAIB was asked to submit the investigation report five months after the crash, failing which a two-month extension was given in January but the report is not out yet,” said Mohan Ranganathan, former instructor pilot of Boeing 737 specialising in wet runway operations.