Govt panel to study response to past air accidents, prepare SoPs

NEw new delhi A high-ranking authorities venire led by the unification home secretary Govind Mohan met for the first time on Monday, deciding to study the country’s response to air crashes in the past, as it works to prepare a standard operating procedure to respond to such accidents, officials said.Also Read: Did double engine failure cause the Air India plane crash? PIB fact-checksThe high- level multi-disciplinary committee, formed and announced by the government on Friday, also focused on improving safety in order to avoid accidents in the future. The committee was set up after an Air India Boeing 787 crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, killing 214 of the 242 on board and at least 30 in the buildings at the crash site.“The committee revisited previous accidents that took place in India or involved an Indian registered aircraft,” one of the officials in the know of the matter said. “Reports of all the previous accidents were analysed,” the official added.Also Read: DNA profiling for Air India crash victims may end today, kin await resultsOfficials in the know of the development said that the lead probe agency, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), with the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), and a team from the aircraft’s manufacturer Boeing from Seattle that reached Ahmedabad on Sunday, were scheduled to extract the plane’s flight data recorder by Tuesday. A Press Information Bureau release on Sunday night said the US NTSB is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, as the aircraft is American-made.Also Read: Raveena Tandon takes Air India flight after AI171 tragedy: ‘Atmosphere is solemn, crew is sad'“The committee is not going to investigate the technical aspect of the accident but look into the procedures that were followed to handle it and if there is a change required in the approach towards handling accidents in the country,” the official quoted above said. “Hence they discussed the accident and the way it was handled,” the official added.The meeting began at 2.15pm on Monday and went on for around two hours.“While the secretary of civil aviation along with other civil aviation ministry officials, attended the meeting in person, local officials from Ahmedabad and other aviation officials investigating the Thursday crash participated virtually,” a second official said.“This was an introductory meeting and it touched upon various aspects not only including the AI 171 crash but also the response to the crash, the update on the situation at the crash site and also the need to come up with an SOP to be followed during such times,” a third person said, requesting anonymity.Officials added issues such as the time it took for local agencies to respond to the crash site at Ahmedabad was also discussed.The committee includes secretary of civil aviation SK Sinha, representatives from the Gujarat home department, the state disaster response authority, the police commissioner of Ahmedabad, the director general (DG), inspection and safety of the Indian Air Force, the DG of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the DG of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the special director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the director of the Directorate of Forensic Science Services.The civil aviation ministry did not comment on the discussions held in the meeting.The government had announced the formation of this committee on Friday to not only examine the causes leading to the crash but also to analyse the existing guidelines issued to prevent and handle such occurrences, and suggest comprehensive guidelines for dealing with such situations in the future.The committee has access to all records, including flight data, cockpit voice recorders, aircraft maintenance records, ATC logs and also testimonies of the witnesses.