"Can't Defend Themselves": Father Of AI-171 Pilot Approaches Supreme Court

Four months after the AI-171 plane crash in Ahmedabad left 260 people dead, the father of the pilot, the late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, has approached the Supreme Court, seeking a judicially monitored probe into the crash.

While 88-year-old Pushkaraj Sabharwal is the first petitioner in the matter, the Federation of Indian Pilots is the second. The petitioners contend that the preliminary investigation into the crash is "profoundly flawed". The probe team, they say, is predominantly focusing on the pilots, who can no longer defend themselves.

This comes after a preliminary report by the Aircraft Accidents Investigation Board suggested that human error had led to the tragedy.

"The current approach of the investigation has resulted in a failure to adequately examine, or rule out, other more plausible technical and procedural factors" that led to the tragedy, the petition says. "The petitioners emphasise that factual misdirection through selective disclosure, especially against crew who cannot defend themselves, impedes root cause discovery and threatens future flight safety-calling for a neutral judicial lens," it adds.

The petition questions the composition of the five-member investigation team, saying it violates the fundamental principle of natural justice that mandates that no person should be a judge in their own cause. "The team is dominated by officers from DGCA, the State aviation authorities whose procedures, oversight, and possible lapses are directly implicated in the investigation. Moreover, the officers are placed under the control of the DG, AAIB, thereby creating a situation where the very entities responsible for regulating and overseeing civil aviation are effectively investigating themselves."

"Only a judicially monitored, expert-driven investigation, independent of the regulatory authorities, can ensure a thorough, transparent, and credible determination of the true causes of this tragedy, uphold accountability, and prevent a repeat of such catastrophic failures," the petition says.

It adds that Captain Sabharwal had an "unblemished career spanning over 30 years, with 15,638 hours of incident-free flying, including 8,596 hours on Boeing 787-8 aircraft, without a single reported lapse or incident causing fatalities or otherwise." While Captain Sabharwal was the pilot-in-command of the flight, and Clive Kundar was the First Officer. 

The petition demands a probe by a judicially monitored committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and comprising independent experts from the aviation sector.

Air India flight 171, travelling from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed seconds after take-off on the afternoon of June 12. All 12 crew members and 229 of the 230 passengers died. The aircraft crashed into the hostel of a medical college in Ahmedabad, killing 19 people. Only one flier miraculously survived the crash.

A month later, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau published a preliminary report on what led to the tragedy. The report mentioned a conversation between Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar. The report said the cockpit audio has confirmed that one pilot asked, "Why did you cut off?" And the other replied, "I didn't." This led to speculation that a pilot error was behind the shocking tragedy. Pilot associations have criticised the probe team's report. Earlier, while hearing a similar petition filed by an aviation safety NGO, the Supreme Court had described the 'pilot error' narrative as "unfortunate".