- Supreme Court said Air India pilot cannot be blamed for the Ahmedabad crash
- Preliminary probe report cited fuel supply cutoff to both engines after takeoff
- Petitioners demanded an independent judicial probe into the Dreamliner crash
No one can blame the pilot-in-command of the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the crash in Ahmedabad in June that killed 260, the Supreme Court told the pilot's father today and sent notices to the Centre, the civil aviation regulator (DGCA), and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
The order came on a petition by Pushkaraj Sabharwal, whose son Sumeet Sabharwal was the pilot-in-command of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) had also filed a petition with a similar demand.
Justice Surya Kant, who heard the petition today, told the 91-year-old grief-stricken father of the late pilot, "This crash was extremely unfortunate, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed."
"No one in India believes it was the pilot's fault. There's no insinuation against the pilot [in the preliminary report]. One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut-off by the other; the other said no," Justice Kant said.
"The Wall Street Journal ran an article," the lawyer of the pilot's father said.
"We are not bothered by foreign reports. Your remedy should then be before a foreign court? It's just nasty reporting," Justice Kant replied.
"I am concerned because they cited an Indian government source," the lawyer said.
The petitioners came to the Supreme Court after the AAIB in its preliminary report released in July said fuel supply to both engines was cut off shortly after takeoff.
The two fuel control switches were moved to the "cutoff" position in quick succession. Although the switches were turned back on about 10 seconds later, the engines had already flamed out, leading to the crash, the report said.
Gopal Shankaranarayan, the lawyer of the pilot's father, told the Supreme Court that an independent judicial committee should look into the Dreamliner crash simply because the AAIB probe was not an independent one.
"There's a problem with Boeing aircraft all over the world," he said, adding an independent investigation is also needed due to the fact that the Dreamliner was involved in an "accident" case, not an "incident".
After sending notices to the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Supreme Court said another similar petition had come, and it will take up both the cases on November 10.
The AAIB report - after noting that one pilot asked the other why he had moved the fuel cutoff switches and the other denied doing so - did not rule out technical faults. It also said aviation medicine and psychology experts are part of the ongoing investigation.
Air India managing director and chief executive Campbell Wilson on October 30 said while the AAIB report found no fault with the airline's operations or practices, the airline continues to introspect and improve its systems.
“Anything that happens in the industry, whether that's us or others, is a cause for introspection. It's a cause for reviewing practices,” Wilson said at the Aviation India 2025 Summit in Delhi.
