Dreamliner crash: Tatas need to fine-tune various aspects of Air India, says Praful Patel

Mumbai: A day after Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad just after takeoff, former Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel suggested a fine-tuning of Tata Group’s management of the airline is required on a priority basis.

“After three and half years of takeover of Air India by the Tatas, the management needs to fine tune various aspects of running a world-class airline including maintenance,” he said in an interaction with the media here.

Patel said that any accident does have a temporary setback but largely the Indian aviation sector is well managed.

“The SOPs and safety norms are well in place in India’s aviation growth,” he added.

“I don’t think the passengers should be scared of air travel. This is because India’s overall safety standards are well defined and DGCA keeps updating these norms in line with the international norms,” he noted.

Asked about the Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) capacity in India, the former Union minister emphasised: “We have world class set up but it is surprising why some planes are sent outside the country for its maintenance. Boeing’s MRO facility at Nagpur has a good track record. Its services should be fully utilised. However, the facility has been underutilised.”

Commenting on the possible reasons behind the crash, Patel said there is a distant possibility of a crash due to bird strike.

“Even if one of the two engines had failed, technically the plane is equipped to take off. Watching the video, it seems that there was no problem at the time of the take off otherwise the pilot would have avoided it,” he said.

Patel said during his tenure, the Parliament enacted law for the establishment of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau which will conduct a thorough investigation which includes retrieving data from black box as well as the video recordings available on social media. While the data will be retrieved within a few months, it will take a little longer for the government to come out with a report detailing the exact reasons behind the crash.

He expressed confidence in the functioning of the Bureau although foreign investigative agencies are going to be involved in this accident including a Boeing team and the Federal Aviation Administration.

IANS