Days after a 12-seater Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft crashed in Ghatkopar, a lawyer has sought a Court of Inquiry and a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Advocate Yeshwant Shenoy while blaming Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the accident also demanded that the entire fleet maintained by Indamer, a Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) firm, be grounded till the probe is completed.
The aircraft, belonging to U.Y. Aviation Pvt. Ltd. crashed during a test flight on June 28, minutes before landing. Four people on board and a pedestrian were killed.
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A couple of years back Mr. Shenoy had filed a PIL raising concerns over air safety due to buildings that violated height restrictions around the airport.
Mr. Shenoy also wrote to the Ghatkopar police demanding they register a FIR against the maintenance company.
In a letter to the civil aviation minister on Wednesday, Mr. Shenoy said, “I have filed a police complaint...I request you to ensure that the investigation by the DGCA officials be immediately stopped and the central government appoints a court of inquiry as was done after the Mangalore plane crash.”
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“As regards the criminal investigation is concerned, the same be transferred to the CBI as the state police is inadequately equipped to conduct investigation related to an aircrash,” the advocate said in his letter. Mr. Shenoy alleged that Indamer was issued show cause notices by the DGCA and serious complaints with evidences were submitted to the aviation regulator in 2016. The advocate claimed that no action was taken.
The letter said that a complaint made to the direct-general of DGCA in 2016 contained a list of maintenance work not conducted properly but falsely satisfied, a repair work undertaken on one of the helicopters where repair is prohibited and only replacement was permitted and an alert service bulletin signed before the repair work and shown as released to service. Mr. Shenoy alleged that despite such serious allegations, no action was taken which brings attention to DGCAs role.