The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) have expressed their resentment over a report that holds the pilot responsible for the Ahmedabad aircraft accident. The president of the organization CS Randhawa criticized the report on Thursday. The report alleges that the captain of Air India aircraft, who crashed in Ahmedabad last month, intentionally stopped the engine fuel. Describing these allegations as baseless, Captain Randhawa said to take action against the news organization. Captain CS Randhawa stressed that the preliminary report of the plane accident investigation branch (AAIB) did not provide any information that a pilot had closed the engine fuel switch. Captain CS Randhawa said, “The report has not been stated that the fuel control switch was closed due to the pilot’s mistake. I condemn the article. He said that it was the pilot’s fault. He did not read the report properly, and we will take action against them through FIP.
I urge people not to make a statement about the initial report.
Captain Randhawa urged people not to comment on AAIB’s initial report, as it could cause fear among passengers about air travel. Captain Randhawa said, “We had issued a statement yesterday that no channel, commentator or chairman of any agency should not give a baseless opinion. It will take time to get a detailed report, as long as people will continue to give their baseless opinions, which is not right.
Referring to the 2019 incident,
Captain Randhawa said, “Neither in the report nor the Civil Aviation Minister called it the pilot’s mistake.” You should connect it to the incident of ANA Flight NH985 on 17 January 2019. At the time of landing, when the pilot imposed thrust reversors, both engines stopped touching the fuel control switch without pilot. I am fully sure that another malfunction occurred in TCMA (throttle control malfunction luxury). This requires complete TCMA check. Boeing has not taken any action yet or has not even tried to issue any instructions to check the TCMA works of all such aircraft. Secondly, there is not a single pilot in the inquiry committee.
Demand to include a pilot in the investigation team
Captain Randhawa said that his federation is requesting the Minister of Civil Aviation to reorganize the board and include qualified experts including pilots, engineers and aviation safety experts in this investigation team. The FIP president said that the Indian pilot is one of the best pilots in the world. He further said: “Indian pilots are one of the best pilots in the world. I did not give my opinion to the Wall Street Journal, who also contacted me, because I am against this American media institution. They are deliberately giving their opinion, their views on this report, while there is nothing like that. Therefore, I will take strong condemnation of this report and we will take action on this report.”
FIP expressed protest
On Wednesday, earlier, the Indian Pilot Federation expressed “serious” concerns on the preliminary conclusions and public discussion related to the crash of Air India flight number AI-171 in Ahmedabad. In an official statement, the FIP expressed dissatisfaction over keeping the pilot representatives out of the investigation process and objected to the interpretation and public presentation of the initial report. The statement came after a report by Reuters, citing the Wall Street Journal, claiming that the recordings of the conversation between the two pilots of the Air India aircraft crashed last month showed that the captain shut down the switch controlling the flow of fuel in the aircraft engines. Wall Street, according to prints, the Wall Street Journal report cites people who are aware of the initial assessment of the US officials of the evidence found in the investigation of the accident. 260 people were killed in this accident. The report said that in the recording, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner pilot was opening a new flap and was asking the more experienced second officer as to why he had kept the key in a “cut” position after the aircraft got off the runway. The first officer expressed surprise and then panicked, while Captain remained calm, the Reuters said citing WSJ.
