THE 91-YEAR-OLD father of the Air India pilot involved in a June crash that killed 260 people has approached the Supreme Court seeking an independent investigation into the incident.

The petition calls for a probe that looks beyond pilot error and asks for an independent panel of aviation experts headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to examine other possible causes.

The move marks an escalation in protests by the father and a pilots’ union over the government’s handling of what was the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade. The crash occurred soon after takeoff from Ahmedabad.

The pilot’s father, Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, filed the plea weeks after publicly criticizing the government investigation. He said officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) had visited him and implied that his son, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, cut the fuel supply to the plane’s engines after takeoff.

The government has denied the allegations, describing the probe as “very clean” and “very thorough.”

In his October 11 filing, the father told the court that the investigation team appeared to “predominantly focus on the deceased pilots … while failing to examine or eliminate other more plausible technical and procedural causes,” one of the sources said.

The petition seeks to close the current government-led probe and transfer it to a new panel chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge and including aviation experts, two sources said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Supreme Court has yet to take up the case, which the court’s website on Thursday showed had been jointly filed by Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots against the government. The site did not provide further details.

The AAIB, the civil aviation ministry, planemaker Boeing and Air India did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Sabharwal’s father and the pilots’ union also did not reply to emails seeking comment.

A preliminary AAIB report said the Boeing Dreamliner’s fuel engine switches had almost simultaneously flipped from “run” to “cutoff” just after takeoff.

A cockpit recording supported the view that Captain Sabharwal had cut the fuel flow to the engines, a source briefed on US officials’ early assessment of the evidence in July told Reuters.

The Federation of Indian Pilots represents about 5,000 members.

Credits: Air India

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The court has also sought a response from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which in July published a preliminary report on what led to the tragedy that claimed 265 lives. The report mentioned a conversation between Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar. The report stated that 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.

Aviation safety NGO Safety Matters Foundation has filed a Public Interest Litigation, alleging that the preliminary report withholds critical information and violates citizens’ fundamental rights to life, equality and access to truthful information. 

The PIL also criticized the report for downplaying systemic anomalies, such as fuel-switch defects and electrical faults, and for prematurely attributing the crash to a pilot error.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan said that more than 100 days have passed since the June 12 crash, but only a preliminary report has been released. “It doesn’t say what may have happened and what precautions should be taken. The result is that all passengers who are travelling on these Boeing planes are at risk today,” he said.

Mr. Bhushan said the five-member team formed to investigate the crash has three serving members from the aviation regulator DGCA, creating a serious conflict of interest. “How can employees of the same organization that is under question carry out the probe?” he asked.

The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said that while the petitioner’s demand for a fair inquiry is understandable, making all findings public could affect the probe. “Suppose tomorrow, it is said that pilot ‘A’ is responsible. The family of the pilot is bound to suffer,” Justice Kant said.

“Prior to the report being given to the government, The Wall Street Journal published an article that we have come to know from our source that this report is going to blame pilots… some leakage happened. Everybody went on, and said this was a pilot error… They were very experienced pilots. The story that was being given was that the pilots deliberately shut off fuel supply to the engines,” Mr Bhushan said.

To this, Justice Kant replied, “These are very unfortunate and irresponsible kinds of (statements)”. He added that confidentiality is critical in such matters.

The Air India flight 171 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.

Credits: Air India

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