BANGALORE: The safety recommendations in the investigation report on the Saras Prototype (P2) crash last year, which had claimed the lives of three Indian Air Force pilots, have met with disapproval of the airplane’s developers.
The final investigation report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recommended that National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL) should immediately stop taking services of a private contractor — Aircraft Design and Engineering Services Private Ltd (ADES) — in the design and development of Saras project.
NAL and its parent body, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), have disregarded the recommendation.
Director General of CSIR, Samir Brahmachari, said ADES would continue to be a part of the project.
“It does not happen that way [about discontinuing ADES]. Wherever expertise is available, we will have to make use of it. ADSE comprises of former employees of NAL and HAL and they are our own people,” he said.
The report of the DGCA points out that even though NAL had entered into an agreement with ADSE on May 1, 2008, the contract was made effective from April 1, 2008.
NAL director, A R Upadhya, refused to comment when asked whether the organisation would follow the recommendations of the 75-page report, which states that NAL’s contract system should be reviewed by a competent authority.
An NAL scientist associated with the project said a high-powered committee had been set up to review the report.
NAL has been saying it will come up with the new design for the third prototype (P3) this year, which will be leaner than the previous prototype, which had crashed in Bangalore outskirts last year.