Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore,Jul 12: The Court of Inquiry (COI) formed to investigate the reasons for the crash of the Air India flight from Dubai during its landing at the local airport on May 22 this year, headed by Air Marshal (Retd) B N Gokhale, took up second round of its investigation at the local airport on Sunday July 11. The committee has five members.
The members of the committee, who visited the site of the tragedy and inspected the pieces of the ill-fated craft that have been recovered and stored at a site near Bajpe, held discussions with the officials of the Airport Authority of India, air traffic control and Air India. On Monday July 12, the committee members are scheduled to hold consultations with the Airport Advisory Committee and officials of the airport.
Sources in the airport said that no conclusions can be drawn at this stage about the reasons for the tragedy at this stage, as the investigation has not been concluded.
However, the information that the preliminary report submitted by the Court of Inquiry headed by Air Marshal B N Gokhale, who was the vice chief of Indian Air Force, contains a grave mistake in identifying the runway, has become a cause of worry. The committee, in its report, had mentioned that the accident had occurred at runway No. 27 of the airport, giving rise to doubts about the seriousness with which the investigation has been undertaken. The tragedy had occurred when the flight was landing on runway No. 24. The factual error in an important area of the report, has raised question marks about the efficacy of the committee’s functioning, it is gathered.