Pilots’ body mulls legal course to be part of AI crash probe

Pilots’ grouping ALPA-India on Sunday said it was mulling legal recourse to have its members as part of the investigation into the Air India’s Boeing 787-8 plane crash, a day after alleging that AAIB’s preliminary report suggests a bias towards pilot error.

The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA-India) represents over 800 pilots of airlines and helicopter companies in the country. It is a member of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Association (IFALPA), which claims to have one lakh pilots from across 100 countries as its members.

Against the backdrop of the AAIB’s preliminary report, representatives of ALPA-India will meet officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday to discuss various issues.

“The preliminary report by the AAIB has been put up on the website. It does not have anyone’s signature on it. We want transparency. We had asked for our representation in the investigation panel," ALPA-India president Sam Thomas said.

Thomas stressed that its members have domain expertise and can contribute meaningfully in the investigation of the Air India plane crash. The association is mulling legal recourse to ensure that its members are made a part of the investigation team.

His comments come at a time when people from certain quarters are opining that fuel switches could have been cut off by a pilot, a proposition that has been strongly rejected by pilots’ groupings.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in its preliminary report on the crash that killed 260 people on June 12 said the fuel switches to the engines were cut off within a gap of 1 second immediately after takeoff and caused confusion in the cockpit of Air India flight AI 171.

India