Air India crash: Who is Captain R.S. Sandhu, and why was he roped into the AAIB probe?

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has brought in veteran pilot and Air India's former Director of Operations Captain R.S. Sandhu as a domain expert in the ongoing investigation into the June 12 Air India crash that killed 260 people.

During his tenure as a designated examiner for the Boeing 787-8 fleet at Air India, he had taken delivery of the now-crashed Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (VT-ANB) in 2013, a PTI report said.

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Sandhu's appointment follows the release of the AAIB preliminary report about the crash on July 12, a month after the London-bound AI 171 flight crashed into a medical college hostel seconds after take-off, leading to the deaths of 241 people onboard, and 19 people on the ground.

Sandhu, who was with Air India for close to 39 years in various capacities, is the founder of aviation consultancy firm Aviazione. He had also headed a team that worked on the integration of the Tata Group airlines, the report said.

The appointment of a subject matter expert has long been a concern for various pilot associations, due to reports from Western media putting the blame for the crash primarily on the pilots, and also because the AAIB preliminary report lacked expert analyses.

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Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Sunday lauded the AAIB in-house probe, and criticised the “vested interests” of the Western media in reporting about the crash prior to the release of the final AAIB report.

“Making any comments until the final report has come, I don't think it is a good exercise on behalf of anyone. We are also very cautious and studying the report thoroughly, and whatever necessary needs to be done in terms of safety, we are ready to do it,” he declared.

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The preliminary report had also stated that the fuel switches of the two engines were cut off immediately, with a time gap of one second after take-off. However, the report had not justified why the switches for both engines had moved to “cutoff” mid-flight.

The Air India crash investigation is currently led by a five-member team headed by AAIB director Sanjay Kumar Singh, who has managed investigations into 15 accidents (or serious incidents) and at least 300 reported occurrences over a 15-year-career.  

India