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Patna crash: Court of inquiry appointed

Nearly three weeks after the crash of Alliance Air 737-200 in Patna, which killed 57 people, the government today appointed a court of inquiry headed by Air Marshal P Rajkumar.

The court has been asked to complete its inquiry and submit a report by October 31.

Immediately after the accident, the government had asked the Patna high court to nominate a sitting judge to conduct the inquiry, but the court expressed its inability to do so citing shortage of judges, an official release said.

To assist the court of inquiry, the government has appointed as assessors Capt N S Mehta, senior Boeing 747-400 commander of Air-India, and S A Deshmukh, senior quality control manager, Air-India.

Air Marshal Rajkumar is the programme director (test flight) for the development of the light combat aircraft in Bangalore. A respected test pilot, he investigated the Indian Airlines Dornier crash at Cochin in 1998, which killed nine people.

The inquiry court has been asked to not only investigate the cause of the crash at Patna, but also give its recommendations to prevent such accidents.

UNI

Alliance Air crash: The entire coverage

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