New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has sought a formal hearing and technical interaction with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) before the finalisation of the report into the Air India AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad.

The request followed the Supreme Court’s July 28 order that recorded the government’s assurance that inputs and suggestions given by the pilots’ body would be duly considered during the investigation.

FIP has sought formal acknowledgement as an aviation stakeholder, placement of its technical submissions on the investigation record and examination of its observations and questions by the competent investigation team.

In a letter, the FIP President Capt. CS Randhawa requested a personal hearing or technical meeting with the investigator-in-charge and relevant subject matter experts before the final investigation report is completed.

The body said it wanted to provide technical inputs on areas including simulator testing and reconstruction, sequence-of-events analysis, crew performance and human factors, aircraft and system behaviour, and operational and regulatory oversight.

It has specifically sought an opportunity to discuss simulator configuration and fidelity, assumptions and methodology used in testing, flight-data correlation, crew actions, cockpit workload, aircraft systems, warning mechanisms, training and procedural requirements.

In addition, the pilots’ body also asked the AAIB to identify the relevant technical discipline or specialist who has examined each substantive issue raised by it, where appropriate.

However, FIP noted that it was not seeking confidential personal information or material that could compromise the independence or confidentiality of the investigation.

“FIP’s objective is not to interfere with, influence or prejudge the independent investigation, but to ensure that relevant operational and technical perspectives are available to the investigation authority before its conclusions are finalised,” FIP said in a letter.

It requested that the proposed technical meeting be scheduled on or before September 15, citing the anticipated timeline for completion of the investigation by the first week of October.

The AI-171 — a Boeing 787-8 operated by Air India — crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12 in the previous year, with the accident resulting in the deaths of 260 people.

–IANS

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