Two weeks after Air India crash, probe lead not named

New Delhi: Almost a fortnight after an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad killing 274 people, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is yet to appoint a lead investigator to probe the accident. The delay, say experts, raises questions on the efficiency of the probe process which has to be necessarily completed in a time-bound manner.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules stipulate that the investigator-in-charge of an air crash will be responsible for the organisation, conduct and control of the probe. ICAO's Annex 13, which outlines guidelines for aircraft accident and incident investigations, also states that a preliminary report has to be submitted within 30 days of an accident.

Official Order Awaited

People aware of the developments said Dhruv Rebbapragada, former regional safety director for South Asia at Airbus, has been finalised to head the investigation panel. Prior to Airbus, Rebbapragada was chief of flight safety and a former pilot at budget airline IndiGo. He has also led multiple investigations for AAIB.

However, Rebbapragada is unable to formally initiate the investigation into the deadly crash of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in the absence of a government order.

Rebbapragada did not respond to calls and messages; neither did the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Civil aviation secretary Samir Kumar Sinha did not respond to multiple messages and an email either.

“The announcement of the investigation committee has to be through an official order by the Director General of AAIB. It is done so because the in-charge then will have a budget, will be granted the power to summon, has unhindered access to the crash site and wreckage, including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. Otherwise, no one has any obligation to comply,” said Amit Singh, founder of Safety Matters Foundation, which works on aviation safety.

AAIB has started a formal inquiry into the crash with a team from the agency commencing its investigation, the civil aviation ministry said on June 12.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu reiterated on Tuesday that AAIB was leading the probe and a panel has been formed. He, however, declined to commit to any timeline for completing the process.

“The investigation has started from Day 1. I do not want to put any pressure… Let them go through the whole process,” the minister said.

People involved in the process said however that the government is yet to issue a formal order for probing the crash.

In 2020, when an Air India Express plane crashed in Calicut killing 21 and injuring many, the AAIB, through a formal order, appointed a five-member committee headed by a pilot.

The government has also set up a separate committee under Union home secretary Govind Mohan, but Naidu in an earlier response to ET’s query clarified that the committee’s mandate was to provide a holistic view for improving the safety of the sector.

Airline executives and aviation safety experts have been raising doubts about the capability of the AAIB, which primarily draws its officers from sector regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). AAIB does not have its own budget and for a long time was headed by an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), before the appointment of current head GVG Yugandhar, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer.

In March, a Parliamentary Standing Committee report flagged “modest” funding of AAIB. For FY26, the capital allocated was ₹20 crore.