New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the preliminary findings as well as the public discourse over the tragic crash of Air India flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad.
Its president Captain C S Randhawa, expressed the federation’s dissatisfaction over the aspect that pilots were excluded from the investigation process.
He alleged, “The report as released, lacks comprehensive data and appears to rely selectively on paraphrased cockpit voice recordings to suggest pilot error and question the professional competence and integrity of the flight crew. This approach is neither objective nor complete.”
He appealed to the federation members and the general public not to lend credence to such premature conclusions.
“Assigning blame before a thorough, transparent, and data-driven investigation is both premature and irresponsible,” he said.
It undermines the professionalism of highly trained crew members and causes undue distress to their families and colleagues, the release added.
It also called upon all stakeholders – including the media, commentators and authorities – to refrain from disseminating partial narratives of making unfounded assumptions.
The Captain added, “We would like to register our dissatisfaction with the exclusion of pilot representatives from the investigation process. We also firmly object to the way in which the preliminary report has been interpreted and presented publicly.
The Federation reiterated the need for a fair, transparent and evidence-based investigation before any conclusions were drawn.