Pilot’s Father Moves SC, Seeks Judicial Probe into AI-171 Crash
Pushkaraj Sabharwal says probe unfairly blames pilots, demands judicially monitored investigation into tragedy that killed 260
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 16th Oct: Four months after the Air India flight AI-171 tragedy in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people, the father of the pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, has moved the Supreme Court seeking a judicially monitored probe into the crash.
Eighty-eight-year-old Pushkaraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots have filed a joint petition alleging that the current investigation is “profoundly flawed” and unfairly targets the deceased pilots. The plea says the official probe “focuses predominantly on the pilots, who can no longer defend themselves,” while overlooking other potential technical or procedural causes.
The preliminary report by the Aircraft Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB) attributed the June 12 crash to human error. However, the petition argues that the probe team’s approach “fails to examine or rule out more plausible technical and procedural factors” that could have contributed to the disaster.
Challenging the composition of the five-member AAIB team, the plea points out that it is dominated by officers from the DGCA — the same regulatory authority whose oversight and procedures are under scrutiny. “This violates the principle that no one should be a judge in their own cause,” the petition states, calling for an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and aviation experts.
The plea highlights Captain Sabharwal’s “unblemished career” of over 30 years, including 15,638 hours of flying without incident, 8,596 of which were on Boeing 787-8 aircraft. The flight’s First Officer, Clive Kundar, also perished in the crash.
Flight AI-171, bound for London Gatwick, crashed seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing all 12 crew members and 229 passengers on board, along with 19 people on the ground. Only one passenger survived. The AAIB’s preliminary findings included a cockpit exchange between the two pilots, sparking speculation about pilot error — a conclusion pilot unions have strongly disputed.
Earlier, while hearing a related plea by an aviation safety NGO, the Supreme Court had termed the “pilot error” narrative “unfortunate.”
