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| IAM Commandant Air Commodore Deepak Gaur |
By Anantha Krishnan M
OneIndia News
Bengaluru, Oct 07: India’s only Aviation Toxicology Laboratory (ATL) has gone live and kicking with state-of-the-art-facilities in Bengaluru.
Situated inside the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), a premier Indian Air Force (IAF) unit next to HAL Airport, the ATL has already developed protocols for evaluating 20 different drugs (molecules) which are required in aviation accident investigation.
The need for an ATL was felt soon after the Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangalore, in May 2010, which killed 158 people onboard. A Court of Inquiry had blamed the pilot for the crash.
In an exclusive interview, IAM Commandant Air Commodore Deepak Gaur says that the ATL has the latest technology and expertise for the analysis of samples from air crashes in a highly refined manner.
“This laboratory was established with an objective to augment aircraft accident investigations. The lab also aims at improving flight safety by conducting exclusive scientific research in the field of aviation toxicology,” says Air Commodore Deepak, an MD in Aerospace Medicine.
The ATL is now refining the sample preparation techniques which will enable analysis of postmortem specimens from air crashes including blood, urine, muscle and other tissues.
Full report, here: http://bit.ly/1WN4juY
