NEW DELHI: Civil aviation minister Arif Mohammad Khan told parliament Tuesday that the government will look into certain allegations on the sale of Airbus A-320’s to Indian Airlines “if there is any basis” for them.
Replying to clarifications on his statement on the airbus crash on February 14 in Bangalore in which 92 people had died; Khan told the Rajya Sabha the government was giving priority to examining the safety aspects of the fly by wire aircraft.
Khan declined to give a specific date by when the services of the 14 A-320’s would be resumed. These aircraft have been grounded since Feb 19.
He said the Airbus Industries had made an unsolicited offer to sell the A-320’s even after a letter of intent was issued to Boeing Company for purchase of 12 B 757S on July 24, 1984.
He said the airbus offer was evaluated by a technical cell and not by any high powered committee which is the usual practice. A decision was then taken to go in for the A 320’s. The cell was just an “informal arrangement” he added.
Khan said the acquisition of the sophisticated aircraft was not matched by adequate ground facilities even though the Airbus Industry claimed that the existing airfields used for jet operations in the country was enough for operation of A-320’s.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 30, 1990
