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A parliamentary panel on Wednesday discussed measures concerning civil aviation safety with senior officials from DGCA, AAI and some private airlines giving their presentations, sources said.
JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, who heads Parliament's Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, later said that the meeting was "very good". He said that India's aviation sector has grown rapidly over the past few years, specially after the UDAN scheme was implemented. Sources said that senior officials of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) told the parliamentary panel that the preliminary report on the plane crash in Ahmedabad is likely to be placed in the public domain in the next few days, sources said. Several members made queries and sought clarifications on the issue of safety and aircraft maintenance. The members, sources said, talked about the vast expansion of aviation sector in India, the projected growth and the need to expand the maintenance facilities. Members mentioned the aircraft crash in Ahmedabad on June 12 last month in which over 250 people were killed. The Air India Flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed shortly after take off from Ahmedabad airport. Sources stated that AAIB officials informed the meeting that the preliminary report would be made public within 30 days of the tragic accident. AAIB officials are also learnt to have told the panel that the black box was intact and its data is being analysed. The agenda of parliamentary panel was to hear the Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, on 'Overall review of safety in Civil Aviation Sector'. The meeting, which began at 11 am lasted till almost 6 pm. Senior officials of Air India, Indigo, Akasa Air were among those present. On Tuesday, Members of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raised serious concerns over aviation safety following the Air India Flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad and the sudden surge in flight fares from Srinagar to other cities after the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, according to sources. The investigation is being led by the AAIB Director General and includes experts from the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and the US-based National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is the designated investigation body from the country of the aircraft's design. Aviation medicine and air traffic control experts are also part of the team. According to officials, this is the first time India is decoding black box data domestically On June 25, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data was downloaded at the AAIB Lab, the official said. (ANI)
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