Our Bureau
New Delhi
With each day there is a new direction in which the investigation into the Ahmedabad crash moves forward. There is a shift in the narrative and now the pilots of the cursed flights are being put under scrutiny and being blamed. As per the reports, serious pilots in India are upset over the whole situation and don’t appreciate pilots being blamed for the crash.
Captain Sam Thomas, who heads the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India), stated that serious experts who have been tracking the investigations throughout, are majorly bothered by two things. First is the constant round of speculations and the second is the alleged absence of any qualified expert in the report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
“As far as speculation is concerned, we are okay with the media speculating. We believe speculation is a good part of investigative journalism. However, we object to pilots or so-called pilots or so-called experts who come on board and speculate,” Capt. Thomas said.
Thomas talked about how there are constantly changing narratives in the media on the basis of the expertise of these so-called experts. One day they say the crash happened because of a bird hit, the next day it is because of overload and some other it is the pilots who were flying the aircraft.
“On day one, they said it’s a bird hit. On day two, they said it’s an overloaded airplane. On day three, they said something else. What we are objecting to is why did you call them on day four? You called them on day five, six, till such time that they insinuated this is something the captain has done with a motive to end his own life, which is farthest from the truth,” Capt. Thomas said.
He questioned the credibility of the report stating that they couldn’t even get the issue date of the pilot’s license right and didn’t even know the full form of FADEC. Thomas stated that the conversations which were made public had a tonality which was not taken into account as they were pilots not two people out on a ‘Tinder Date’.
“I don’t want to see past those three lines. And you have released one line selectively at the order of somebody. Now, we don’t know who said to whom. And there is a tonality to a conversation. These are not two people on a Tinder date. So please be responsible,” Mr Thomas said.
