Hyderabad: Neither Air India nor the Central Training Establishment (CTE) had the permission to shift the vintage A-320 aircraft that crashed while being transporting by road from Begumpet Airport to the CTE. Technical wing (operations) assistant general manager of Air India Mr I. Ganna Sambandam had approached the Ranga Reddy district authorities seeking approval for shifting the aircraft on January 29, 2016. The Ranga Reddy officials had started processing the application on February 2.
The applications consisted the specifications of the aircraft and the crane for shifting it. “Air India Hangers has been directed to shift the 125ft X 120ft plane from Begumpet airport to CTE for training purposes. We will utilise a crane with a 200 metric tonne capacity. M/S Durga Crane is providing assistance to shift it on the 3 km route. Once we get the approval from the Ranga Reddy Collectorate, we will start shifting,” the application stated.
The application also had a letter from Durga Crane stating that '32.4 lakh would be charged for the shifting process which would start within 15 days of the approvals being granted. Ranga Reddy district collector M. Raghunan-dan Rao meanwhile told DC that they had not given approval to the CTE authorities for shifting the aircraft and Sunday’s operation was being carried out without any notice. An official source from the Ranga Reddy district collectorate said that they had sent letters to four major departments for providing clearance before issuing the approval. “We had written to the Cyberabad police commissioner, Ranga Reddy district transport commissioner, TSCPDCL superintending engineer and R&B superintending engineer. If we got clearance from these departments, we would have given approval,” a source said.
The source said that CTE authorities had explained in the application that till the time they held trials of the shifting process inside the airport, they would not start the process. Bowenpally police have registered a case under section 336 of IPC against Air India, CTE Authorities and Durga Crane for negligence. Inspector K. Kiran said that CTE only showed the permission letter from Air India for shifting the aircraft. “During the course of investigation, supporting beams were not utilised by the crane operator while shifting the aircraft. Rods of the crane were in poor condition. The CTE authorities orally informed us and traffic wing for providing security,” he said.
Police want to question key official:
The North Zone police wants to interrogate and include the official who was in charge of planning and executing the shifting of the aircraft in the First Information Report (FIR). Cops have booked a case under IPC section 336 (for negligence leading to mishap) on a complaint from the manager of Central Training Establishment (CTE). They have also added the name of the crane operator in the FIR.
“We now have to find who was in charge of the operation. We will add his name to the existing FIR,” said North Zone DCP N. Prakash Reddy. As per the rules, the Air India officials should have obtained a written permission from the Bowenpally police before shifting the aircraft. However, police only got oral information from Air India.
