Work on salvaging the wreckage of the Air India Express flight IX-812 that crashed here on May 22 began at the crash site at Kenjar on Wednesday. The debris of the plane is being shifted to a vacant plot inside the Bajpe airport.
Speaking to The Hindu , Airport Director Peter Abraham said that the Airports Authority of India had provided a plot inside the airport which was less than 500 metres from the crash site. “The entire salvage operations are being conducted by the airline. We only provided the space,” he said.
Air India Station Manager Chellam Prasad said that a temporary weather-proof shelter would be erected inside the airport to house the wreckage.
The debris, which counts as evidence, will remain in the shelter until investigations are complete. Ms. Prasad said that the salvage operations had been made extremely tough given the present weather conditions. “Under the present weather, it cannot be said when we will complete the process,” she said. As many as 158 people on board the plane were killed in the crash.
