Ahmedabad plane crash: Need to do extended surveillance into Boeing 787 Series, says Civil Aviation Minister

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Naidu said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already given its order for "extended surveillance for the 787 planes".

"We have very strict safety standards in the country...When the incident happened, we also felt that there is a need to do an extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 Series. DGCA has also given an order to do the extended surveillance for the 787 planes.

"There are 34 in our Indian aircraft fleet today. I believe that 8 have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done...," the minister said.

Naidu said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) team believes that the black box, which was recovered on Friday, will give an idea of what had actually happened during the crash or before it.

The minister said, "One important update from the technical investigation which is happening through the AAIB is the recovery of the black box yesterday around 5pm from the site.

"The AAIB team believes that this decoding of the black box is going to give an in-depth insight into what would have actually happened (what have 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 is going to be once the AAIB goes through its full investigation..." 

Meanwhile, the toll in the plane crash has increased to 274 including on-ground people, who were killed in one of the worst aviation tragedies of the country.

The tragedy that had left all but one onboard dead after the plane crashed within seconds after take-off into the BJ Medical College Hostel at Meghaninagar area of the largest city of Gujarat on Thursday afternoon.

While 241 onboard passengers and crew members died in the crash, another 33 on ground were killed in the tragedy that has sent shockwaves across the country and brought the Boeing 787-7 Dreamliner under scrutiny.

Out of 242, 230 were passengers and 12 were crew members.

One person, the passenger of seat No. 11A,  survived the crash miraculously.

Ramesh, a British-Indian who was returning to the UK after a visit to India, is the lone survivor in the mishap.

The central government has formed a high-level multi-disciplinary committee to examine the causes that led to the crash of the Air India Flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport in London.