New Delhi: After facing severe criticism from pilots’ associations for not having one of their own in the panel probing the Ahmedabad Air India crash, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has engaged veteran pilot and Air India’s former director of operations, Captain R S Sandhu, as a domain expert.
Sandhu was the designated examiner of the Boeing 787-8 fleet at Air India and had taken delivery of the aircraft – VT-ANB – that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 this year, in 2013.
The tragedy took place immediately after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner took off from Ahmedabad for Gatwick in London, killing 260 people, including 241 on board. AAIB’s preliminary report pointed to the fuel control switches in the cockpit being turned to the ‘Cut Off’ mode immediately after take off.
This report led to speculation that one of the pilots of the ill-fated flight may have switched off the fuel supply to the engines. Pilots across the country protested against this and questioned why there was no flyer in the probe panel. The AAIB, on its part, rebutted such speculation. So did the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the US that is part of the investigation.
According to sources, AAIB approached Capt Sandhu to be a part of the team and he agreed.
The veteran pilot was with Air India for close to 39 years in various capacities and is the founder of aviation consultancy firm Aviazione. He had also headed a team that worked on the integration of the Tata Group airlines.
A five-member team, headed by 56-year-old Sanjay Kumar Singh, is probing the fatal crash of the Air India aircraft.
AAIB has said that experienced pilots, engineers, aviation medicine specialists, aviation psychologists and flight recorder specialists have been taken on board as subject matter experts to assist in the investigation in the area of their domain expertise.