Air India Plane Crash: AAIB Likely to Submit Final Report by Year-End, Say Sources

The probe into the Air India crash is nearing completion, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) expected to submit its final report by the end of this year, sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry told Times Now. On June 12, the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust almost immediately after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport and ploughed into a medical college hostel, killing all but one of the 242 onboard and another 19 on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in a decade."The probe is going on smoothly," an official told Times Now. Officials confirmed that the investigation into both black boxes is still underway. Investigators are currently examining both the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit

voice recorder (CVR).

The AAIB had, earlier in June, released the preliminary report into the Air India plane crash. The 15-page preliminary report has found that the fuel supply to both engines of Air India flight AI171 was cut off within a second of each other. The 15-page report also said that in the cockpit voice recording, one unidentified pilot asked the other why he had cut off the fuel, which the other denied. The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.The father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, on Thursday demanded a formal investigation by the central government into the Air India plane crash. Perturbed with the preliminary findings of the AAIB inquiry, Sabharwal said that selective leaks about the accident have led to speculation that Sumeet (56) was under tremendous psychological pressure and therefore was contemplating committing suicide. Pushkaraj has demanded that the central government order a formal enquiry into the accident under Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017. Under Rule 12, the central government can institute a formal investigation into circumstances of any accident of an Indian registered aircraft if it appears that it is expedient to hold such a probe.