The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has published its
final investigation report into the March 6, 2009 crash of the second Saras prototype (photo). The comprehensive 75-page report has come out with highly damning findings not just about Pratt & Whitney's inexplicable failure to convey enough about the engine to the aircraft's maker, the National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), but has also indicted faulty procedures at NAL and the IAF's Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), serious controllability issues of the platform itself and several other lapses on virtually every front. Disturbing read.