Air India plane crash: Air safety panel set up to advise on policy revamp

A committee led by Union home secretary Govind Mohan will suggest steps to overhaul India’s aviation safety policy as the government is looking to prevent a recurrence of incidents such as Air India’s Boeing 787-8 plane crash that killed more than 270 people.

Announcing formation of the panel two days after the country’s worst air crash, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Saturday said it will examine the existing standard operating procedures and make recommendations on how to prevent and handle such occurrences.

This is besides the investigation that statutory body Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will conduct. “We have put a time limit of three months for them to sit down, talk to various stakeholders, involve and discuss with any other important expert that is necessary,” Naidu said at his first media briefing after Thursday’s crash.


The committee will include the heads of civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and security regulator Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, as well as joint secretary-level officers from the state and central governments. It will also consult experts in aviation safety, accident investigators and lawyers.

AAIB, under the civil aviation ministry, is investigating the crash, while the US National Transportation Safety Board will also be involved in the detailed probe, given that the aircraft was manufactured by an American company, Boeing, and was made in the US.

Wake-up Call
A UK AAIB team will also assist in the investigation, as will Boeing and other major component manufacturers like GE, which supplied engines for the aircraft.

The committee will hold its first meeting next week, according to a senior government official. It will study steps taken by other countries following such accidents and its suggestions will be incorporated in the National Civil Aviation Policy, which was launched in 2016.

There have been three fatal crashes in the US this year, which sparked calls for overhauling of the Federal Aviation Authority.

“This accident is a jolt for all of us. But it is also a wake-up call and the committee will suggest measures to make it safer, looking at the scenario where aviation is no more a luxury but an essential mode of transport and transforming India into an aviation hub,” said the official cited.