India will lead the crash investigation, but these other parties will likely be involved, too

 India will lead the crash investigation, but these other parties will likely be involved, too

Investigators from all over the world will be involved in a probe to figure out what went wrong in the case of a commercial plane that crashed shortly after takeoff in India on Thursday, one expert said.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 242 people when it departed from Ahmedabad International airport with a destination of London Gatwick Airport.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation, said India will be the lead investigator, but there are well-established procedures that dictate how other countries can support.

“Through lots of experience in the past and by treaties and operation of law, how the investigation in international aircraft works is very well established,” she told CNN today.

The plan was heading to London, so the United Kingdom will participate in the investigation, she said, as well as other countries who had nationals on the plane. Boeing and the companies who manufactured the electronics and control systems in the aircraft will also likely be involved, according to Schiavo.

“So there will be just a wealth of experience and abilities” working to figure out what happened, she said.

Before the plane crashed, pilots gave a Mayday call to air traffic control shortly after takeoff, according to India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Investigators will be working to recover the black boxes, or flight recorders, to learn more about what happened, Schiavo said.

“India is an aviation nation and very experienced, and they will have experts that could do that,” Schiavo said, referring to retrieving the information from those recorders.