Maharashtra MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned the hushed release of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB’s) report on the Air India plane that crashed, killing 241 passengers on board and more on-ground. She also questioned how the contents of the report made their way to a foreign publication even before they were released in India. “Because one can’t be a mute spectator to what is happening with regards to the narrative around the AI171 crash and its interim report,” she said.
Chaturvedi said the way the interim investigation report was handled and disseminated was very concerning. “It is deeply troubling that sensitive details of the AAB report were available to foreign news agencies and published in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal before any official release in India,” the Rajya Sabha MP wrote in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu.
“The nonstop insinuations made against the deceased pilots through implication and selective leaks of the interim report as well as through international media’s narrative is absolutely reprehensible,” she said, adding that this is a “sinister attempt” to malign the pilots who are not alive to present their case.
She also referred to the concerns raised by the pilots’ organisation. The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA-India) that questioned the lack of pilot representation in the investigating panel, is reportedly mulling taking a legal course to be part of the probe. “The preliminary report by the AAIB has been put up on the website. It does not have anyone’s signature on it. We want transparency. We had asked for our representation in the investigation panel,” ALPA-India President Sam Thomas had said.
Chaturvedi questioned why the report was released during late hours, with “no public briefing, no signed interim findings, and no clarity on the process that led to its release”. It shows a lack of transparency and gives rise to legitimate concerns about ‘whose interests are being served and whether due process has been followed’, she said.
She urged the minister to initiate a formal inquiry into the leak of the contents of the report, make the name of all the members of the investigation panel public and ensuring the report should have each member’s signature, issue guidelines to the media on how to handle interim reports from regulatory and investigative bodies, and inclusion of experienced aviators in every state of such investigations.
