Inquiry team probing Mangalore air crash holds first meeting

The members of the court of inquiry,set up by the government to probe the Mangalore air crash which claimed 158 lives, today met for the first time and discussed the modalities of the probe.

The 28 member CoI, headed by Air Marshal (retd) Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale, held its first meeting to discuss modalities
of inquiry, official sources said.

They would again meet tomorrow and very soon visit the
crash site in Mangalore airport, they said.

The government has appointed Gokhale - a fighter pilot and former vice-chief of IAF - as the head the CoI, which has been
asked to complete its investigation and submit report by
August 31.

The panel would investigate all aspects of the crash of the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 operating on scheduled
flight IX-812 from Dubai to Mangalore when it plunged into a
ravine after overshooting the runway on landing at the Bajpe
Airport on May 22.

The government also appointed four experts from different fields to assist Gokhale as assessors.

They are Capt Ron Nagar, former Flight Inspector and pilot of erstwhile Indian Airlines, S S Nat former DGCA officer,
Babu Peter, Executive Vice President (Engineering) in GoAir
and former Director in Indian Airlines, and Gurcharan Bhatura,
former Executive Director of Airports Authority of India.

Director (Airworthiness) at DGCA, S N Dwivedi, will be the secretary to the CoI, which would be headquartered here.