New Delhi: As the investigation into the London-bound Air India 171 crash begins, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday briefed the media on how the tragedy unfolded on Thursday afternoon and expressed hope about finding out what led to the crash once the data from the black box, which was recovered Friday evening, is decoded.
"On 12th June around 2PM, we received the information that the plane going from Ahmedabad to Gatwick London had crashed. We immediately got detailed information about this through ATC Ahmedabad. This was an AIC 171 and there were a total of 242 people on board, including 230 passengers, 2 pilots and 10 crew members. This plane took off at 1:39 pm and within a few seconds, after reaching a height of about 650 feet, it started sinking, i.e., it started losing height,"Samir Kumar Sinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation was qouted saying by news agency ANI.
Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu and Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, were also present at the press briefing.
"At 1:39 pm the pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that it was a May Day, i.e., full emergency. According to ATC, when it tried to contact the plane, it did not receive any response. Exactly after 1 minute, this plane crashed in Medhaninagar, which is located at a distance of about 2 km from the airport," he added.
Sinha further said, "The captain of the plane was Sumit Sabharwal and the first officer was Clive Sundar. As far as the entire history of the plane is concerned, before this accident, the plane had completed Paris-Delhi-Ahmedabad sector without any accident. Due to the accident, the runway was closed at 2:30 pm and after completing all the protocols, the runway of Ahmedabad was opened for limited flights from 5 PM."
Notably, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an extended surveillance of the Boeing 787 series aircraft models.
