India's civil aviation ministry forms another panel to probe plane crash, asked to submit report in 3 months

So far, it is unclear how many people on the ground were killed due to the crash. Local media reports put the total death toll at around 274.

NEW DELHI, June 15 (Xinhua) -- India's federal civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu Saturday said keeping in view the utmost seriousness of the incident, another high-level committee has been formed to probe the deadly plane crash in the western state of Gujarat.

The committee, according to Kinjarapu, will be headed by the home secretary and will submit its report in three months.

"To further investigate the incident and to look into all the theories and the information that is going around this incident, we felt it would be much better to have another committee also looking into the crash and also the safety. Yesterday we constituted the committee under the chairmanship of the home secretary and we wanted to have experts in the committee from various sectors," he said.

According to Kinjarapu, other members of the committee will be secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, additional secretary from the Ministry of Home Affairs, a representative from the Gujarat local government, a representative from the state disaster response authority (Gujarat), police commissioner of Ahmedabad, director general of inspection and safety of the Indian Air Force, director general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, director general of the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, special director of the Intelligence Bureau, director of the Directorate of Forensic Science Services.

"We have put a time limit of three months for them to sit down, talk to various stakeholders and other people they deem necessary to talk to, to come up with their report," he said.

The Indian government's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has already initiated an investigation into the crash.

"One important update from the technical investigation, which is happening through the AAIB is the recovery of the black box yesterday around 5:00 p.m. (local time) from the site. The AAIB team believes that decoding of the black box is going to give an in-depth insight into what actually happened during the process of the crash or moments before the crash itself. We are also eagerly waiting for what the results, or the report, are going to be once the AAIB goes through its full investigation," the minister said.

The minister added that an extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 series was underway in the country.

"When the incident happened, we also felt that there was a need to do an extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 series. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has also given an order to do extended surveillance for the 787 planes. There are 34 in our Indian Air aircraft fleet today. I believe that eight have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done," Kinjarapu said.

Ahead of the minister's briefing, Samir Kumar Sinha, secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, detailed how the incident took place on Thursday afternoon. He said the London-bound flight took off at 1.39 p.m. (local time) on Thursday and crashed at a distance of 2 km from the airport.

Sinha confirmed that the pilot sent a mayday call to the air traffic controller (ATC). However, as the ATC tried to contact the plane, no response was received.

"On 12th June, around 2:00 p.m. (local time), we received the information that the plane going from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, London had crashed. We immediately got detailed information about this through ATC Ahmedabad. This was an AIC 171 and there were a total of 242 people on board, including 230 passengers, two pilots, and 10 crew members. This plane took off at 1:39 p.m. (local time) and within a few seconds, after reaching a height of about 650 feet, it started sinking, i.e., it started losing height. At 1:39 p.m. (local time), the pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that it was a May Day, i.e., full emergency. According to ATC, when it tried to contact the plane, it did not receive any response," Sinha said.

The flight crashed shortly after takeoff from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, about 17 km south of Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat.

It had 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian, apart from two pilots and 10 cabin crew members on board when it crashed at the premises of B J Medical College in the Meghaninagar area.

All but one of the 242 people on the flight were killed when it crashed, causing severe damage to the buildings on the ground.

A video of the aircraft flying low and struggling to gain altitude shows the plane going down and exploding in a massive ball of fire.

Parts of the plane were scattered all around the premises, and rescuers are trying to clear the debris at the spot.

So far, it is unclear how many people on the ground were killed due to the crash, as officials have not disclosed the death toll.

Local media reports put the death toll at around 274.■