Veteran Pilot Joins Air India Crash Probe

Mumbai, Jul 20 (PTI) The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has roped in veteran pilot and Air India's former director of operations Captain RS Sandhu as a domain expert in the ongoing probe into the Ahmedabad plane crash that killed 260 persons last month, sources said on Sunday.

Sandhu, who was also a designated examiner for the Boeing 787-8 fleet at Air India, had taken delivery of the now-crashed 787-8 plane -- VT-ANB -- in 2013.

On June 12, Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft en route to London Gatwick from Ahmedabad crashed into a building soon after takeoff, killing 260 people, including 19 people on the ground. Out of the 242 people onboard, one passenger survived.

On July 12, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report into the fatal crash.

"AAIB has onboarded seasoned aviator RS Sandhu in the ongoing investigation of the Air India Boeing 787-8 plane crash in Ahmedabad last month," one of the sources told PTI.

AAIB had apparently approached Sandhu to be a domain expert in the ongoing probe, and he agreed to the proposal, the sources said.

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.

Various pilot unions had raised concerns over the absence of subject matter experts in the probe. Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India) has been urging AAIB to include its representatives in the Air India aircraft crash probe.

Details about other domain experts, who are part of the AAIB investigation, could not be immediately ascertained.

A five-member team, headed by 56-year-old Sanjay Kumar Singh, is probing the fatal crash of the Air India aircraft.

Experienced pilots, engineers, aviation medicine specialists, aviation psychologists and flight recorder specialists have been taken on board as subject matter experts to assist in the investigation in the area of their domain expertise, according to AAIB.