NEW MUMBAI: Unlike accident investigation bodies in many countries that issue preliminary reports within 30 days of an accident, India's Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) does not issue preliminary reports on air accidents it deals with. - checked. This led to the loss of Pawan Hans, who was involved in the Arabian Sea accident in June 2022 that killed four CGSB employees. After the disaster, CGSB officials intercepted the flight of Pawan Hans using a Sikorsky helicopter. Nine months have passed, the AAIB has still not issued a report, the cause of the accident is still unknown, CGSB officials remain suspicious, and the controversy continues. It grounded four other Sikorsky planes leased by Pawan Hans, incurring a loss of Rs 2.5 crores per month, totaling over Rs 22 crores since June.
“The lack of news has caused huge damage to CGSB and Pawan Hans. For lack of clarity, Pawan Hans's new Sikorsky 76 D aircraft has crashed. Although these are modern helicopters with modern equipment, it was found that ONGC employees have refused to fly these helicopters who are not prepared for the aircraft they are replacing," said Capt Uday Gelli. , President of Rotary Wing of India Western Region. "It is natural that the CGSB is nervous since the cause of the accident is unknown. The management is very sensitive to the safety of its employees and refuses to use this modern helicopter. What a waste of a precious national resource. AAIB will act on this matter as a matter of priority,” he added. Pawan Hans refused to comment.
Inquiries sent to the AAIB last week went unanswered. "In the year 2022, India has a total of 22 accidents/fatal incidents, not a single report has been released so far. This includes the May SpiceJet crash that resulted in the death of a passenger later," Capt. said Amit Singh, a flight attendant. security expert. Many countries, including India, follow the recommendations given in the Annex 13 document of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to conduct accident investigations. Under this, the investigator should create a preliminary report within 30 days of the accident, while a full final report can be created within a year. Although Annex 13 does not require the initial report to be made public, many countries make it public within the same month, so that lessons are learned and repetition is avoided.
An example is the Yeti Air crash of January 15 that killed 68 people in Pokhara. Nepal's Air Accidents Investigation Commission released a 13-page preliminary report on February 15.
The report revealed that during landing, the pilot mistakenly selected the wrong lever which shut down both engines of the plane in mid-air. The placement of the said lever in the cockpit of the ATR and human factors could have caused the accident, a valuable lesson for ATR pilots around the world.
Unlike a final report that is several hundred pages long and thoroughly examines various contributing factors, a preliminary report is usually only a dozen or twelve pages long. But in its narrow body often lies the most terrible lesson that pilots, practitioners can learn from the accident.
In the past ten years, fatal plane accidents have occurred in countries such as Indonesia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia and all these countries released preliminary reports within a month. Even the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370 on March 8, 2014 was the subject of a preliminary report, which was released by the Ministry of Transport of Malaysia a month later on April 9.
Why must a preliminary report be issued within 30 days of an accident? ICAO states that accident investigations will only be conducted to determine the cause of the accident and prevent it from happening again. Investigations are not conducted to assign blame, so the sooner the cause of an accident is known, the better for the company. For example: less than a week after the plane crash of October 29, 2018 Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX in the Java Sea killed 189 passengers and crew, questions have arisen about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX, which entered the service in March 2017. On November 06, 2018 Boeing issued a newsletter to the pilots of the Boeing 737 MAX, where it insists that the plane is not safe. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Board released a 65-page preliminary report on November 15, 2018 that provided a better perspective on the issue. On March 10, 2019, another Boeing 737 MAX operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed, killing 157 people. Two days later, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded around the world. Ethiopian authorities released a 33-page preliminary report that same month, which again helped operators, especially pilots, to understand what was happening on the ground.
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