Govt. may to set up separate body to investigate with NTSB in Mangalore air crash
Govt. may to set up separate body to investigate with NTSB in Mangalore air crash
Air India Crash
Government may consider setting up a separate body to investigate air accidents in line with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in view of Saturday’s air crash in Mangalore that claimed 158 lives.
In an interview with a private news channel, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said that the Centre will look at a different, an independent regulator for this purpose. Mr. Patel did not rule out a human error factor behind the Air India Express crash but made it clear that the report of the inquiry being conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should be awaited before coming to any conclusion.
Meanwhile, the cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated Air India Express aircraft has been recovered from the accident site. However the search is on for the black box or the digital flight data recorder of the aircraft. The black box will have the information regarding time, position and speed of the aircraft during the air crash.
Air India announced an interim compensation for the victims of the air crash, including ten lakh rupees each for the family of those above 12 years of age and five lakh rupees each to the family of children. Addressing a press conference in Mangalore, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav said, this is over and above the compensation announced by the Prime Minister and the state government.
Air India would also pay an interim compensation of two lakh rupees each to all the eight injured.
Mr. Jadhav said, all the 158 bodies have been recovered. So far, 128 of them were identified and handed over to the families. Among others, 18 bodies have been identified and sent for post-mortem. The remaining 12 bodies, which were totally charred, are yet to be identified. They are being subjected to DNA test.
As families of Mangalore plane crash victims go through a trauma, Air India is arranging for the services of grief counselors in an attempt to help them overcome the tragedy.
The airline has also put in place its full Emergency Response Team at Mangalore. More emergency help lines are being set up at various airports to help the families of the victims and survivors.
