77C. Investigation of an incident- (1) The Director-General may order the investigation of any incident involving an aircraft or a person associated with the maintenance and operation of aircraft, or both, and may, by general or special order, appoint a competent and duly qualified person having experience in aviation accident/incident investigation as Inquiry Officer for the purpose of carrying out such investigation.

(2) The investigation referred to in sub-rule (1) be held in private.

(3) The investigation shall be conducted in such a manner that if a charge is made or is likely to be made against any person and if it appears to the Inquiry Officer to be practicable so to do that person shall be given notice that blame may be attributed to him, and thereupon he may be given a reasonable opportunity of being present and making any statement or giving any evidence and producing witnesses on his behalf and examining any witness from whose evidence it appears that blame may be attributed to him.

(4) A public notice that such investigation is taking place may be given by the Director-General in such manner as he thinks fit and every such public notice shall state that any person who may desire to make a representation concerning the circumstances or causes of the incident may do so in writing within the time specified in the notice.

(5) The Inquiry Officer shall make a report to the Director-General stating all relevant facts with regard to the incident and his conclusions with regard to the causes of the incident and adding any observations and recommendations which he may think fit to make with a view to avoidance of similar incidents in future.

(6) The Director-General shall forward the report of the Inquiry Officer to the Central Government with such comments as the Director-General may think fit to make and the Central Government may, at its discretion, make the whole or part of any such report public in such a manner as it may consider fit.