Centre wants to stand by truth, AAIB probe unbiased: Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu on Ahmedabad Air India crash

 Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu stated in Rajya Sabha that the probe into the Ahmedabad Air India crash is progressing in an unbiased manner and urged people to avoid speculations until the probe concludes. The minister's statement comes amid speculations that pilots' error could have caused the crash.

The monsoon session of Parliament commenced on Monday. Addressing  Rajya Sabha, Union Minister Naidu said, "We want to stand with truth, not anything else." The civil aviation minister dismissed speculations over the preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and urged the public and media to wait until the probe concludes.

The Union minister said the probe is progressing in an unbiased manner. "AAIB follows a definitive, rule-based process, totally unbiased in probing the Air India Ahmedabad plane crash," the minister said.

“Making any comments until the final report has come, I don't think it is a good exercise on behalf of anyone. We are also very cautious and studying the report thoroughly, and whatever necessary needs to be done in terms of safety, we are ready to do it,” the minister told the upper house.

"I have seen multiple articles not only by the Indian media but also by the Western media trying to promote their own viewpoint. The way we are seeing the investigation is through facts," the minister stressed.

 The London-bound Air India flight crashed soon after it took off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12. The AAIB published its preliminary report on the probe on July 12. The investigators said fuel cutoff switches to both engines of AI171 Boeing Dreamliner were activated soon after the flight took off. Though fuel supply was restored, the aircraft failed to recover its speed, leading to the crash.