Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal Over Air India Crash Fuel Switches Report

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal challenging a Delhi High Court order that had rejected a petition seeking disclosure of the exact moment a fuel switch was moved from “run” to “cut-off” on a London-bound Air India aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad last year.

Hearing the matter, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant questioned the intent behind the plea. “What is the deep-rooted agenda? As if we don't know why all this is filed. The families of the deceased are not coming here, but you are here,” he remarked, before dismissing the appeal.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) had been filed by Suresh Chand Shrivastava, a mechanical engineer from IIT Delhi, seeking directions to disclose the precise timing of the fuel switch transition in the ill-fated flight.

Earlier, on February 25, 2026, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea, observing that such a direction could not be granted. The court said the petitioner should instead seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, if permissible.

The petitioner had argued that the preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau should include the “complete sequence of events” leading to the crash. His counsel contended that a possible “engine surge” could have caused the failure of both engines — something that, he argued, could be verified through precise data on flame-out timing and fuel switch movements.

Rejecting the plea, the High Court underscored that technical domains should be left to experts. “It is a well-settled principle of law that the field where experts operate should ordinarily be left to them,” the bench said, adding that courts cannot be asked to reinterpret expert reports even if a petitioner perceives gaps.

The court also noted that the investigation was still ongoing and only a preliminary report had been released so far. It orally observed that the petitioner had already made representations to the authorities, which would be considered in due course.

The crash was among India's worst aviation disasters that occurred on June 12, 2025, when a Boeing 787-8 operating Air India flight AI-171 to London Gatwick went down shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. A total of 260 people, including 241 passengers, lost their lives.