India likely to make preliminary Air India plane crash report public | India News

MUMBAI: As the 30-day limit to submit the report of the preliminary investigation into the June 12 Air India accident in Ahmedabad to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) ends this week, there is anticipation India will release it to the public.The ICAO places no obligation on the investigating country to make the report public and India had not released the preliminary report of the last major accident at Calicut in 2020. But the AI 171 probe is being followed by the global airline industry with keen interest as it was the first major one involving a Boeing 787.“Apart from the roles and responsibilities of Air India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and others, the investigation will crucially be a Boeing 787 systems-level case study. It’s the first such global investigation of the ‘more electric’ B787 aircraft. The preliminary findings, if substantial and critical, could reshape B787 operations,” said a senior commander, requesting anonymity. “What we hear is that India will make the preliminary report public this time,” he added.Prior to the June 12 accident, the last major fatal accident India investigated was the August 2020 Calicut Air India Express accident involving a Boeing 737 and 21 deaths. Back then, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) did not release its preliminary report to the public.Since an aircraft accident investigation is solely carried out to learn lessons and prevent a repeat — unlike a murder investigation, it does not apportion blame or trace culprits — most countries release their preliminary findings to the public.The last time the global aviation industry tracked an accident investigation closely was in 2018 after the Oct 29 Indonesian Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crash. Keeping with the 30-day deadline, on Nov 28, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee sent a preliminary report to ICAO and also publicly released it. In fact, it announced in advance that the preliminary report would be uploaded on its website at 10 am on November 28.

“The preliminary investigation following Lion Air Flight 610 revealed that prior to the crash, a system called Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS engaged without the Lion Air pilots’ knowledge. Back then, Boeing hadn’t disclosed MCAS to any airlines or pilots. The MCAS lowers the nose automatically to prevent a stall, or the loss of lift, if it detects that the angle of the plane’s nose is too high relative to the ground. What we learnt from the preliminary report is that a malfunctioning sensor may have led the MCAS to engage repeatedly, countering the pilots’ manoeuvres,” said a B737 examiner. “When Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX crashed five months later, it was the Lion Air preliminary report that came back into focus. The final report into the Lion Air crash came a year later; by then, the B737 MAX was already grounded globally,” he added. “If Air India accident preliminary report points to any possible warning or technical fault in the B787, you can imagine the impact it would have on Dreamliner operations globally,” the examiner said. Of all the accident investigations carried out by India in the past decades, this one is arguably the most followed investigation globally. The AAIB can submit the preliminary report to the ministry of civil aviation if it chooses. Under Annex 13 of ICAO, which lays down the guidelines for carrying out an accident investigation, the preliminary report has to be submitted by the state (India, in this case) to ICAO within 30 days of the occurrence.