5 Alliance planes to be dry-leased 8212; Yadav

Earlier, in a statement in the Upper House, Yadav announced a Court of Inquiry by a sitting judge of Patna High Court to probe the July 17 accident which left 57 people dead.

He said dry-lease of five aircraft would be done within three to four months and technical evaluation for procurement of new aircraft to replace the ageing fleet would be completed in a time-bound manner.

While several members demanded that government ground all the aircraft which are more than 20 years old, the Minister said they were within airworthy norms. The average age of Alliance Air fleet of 11 Boeing 737 aircraft is around 18 years, he said.

The Minister, however, assured that within 15 days, compensation would be provided to the crash victims. An amount of Rs 7.5 lakh will be given to the next of kin of each of the deceased passengers over 12 years and Rs 3.75 lakh to kin of those below 12 years of age. Similarly, Rs 1.5 lakh will be provided to each of the injured passengers.

The aircraft was manufactured in June, 1980. Its maintenance, undertaken in a time bound manner, included 20 years ageing modification and repairs of the aircraft, was completed in January, 2000, he said.