'No one can blame him': SC tells father of pilot in Air India crash

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday observed that no blame could be directed to the pilot of the Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 this year, LiveLaw reported.

A two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a petition filed by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, the father of Commander Sumeet Sabharwal, and sent notices to the Centre and the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

On June 12, a London-bound Air India flight from Ahmedabad crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all but one passenger on board. The total fatalities were 260, with 240 people on board.

Petitioners demand independent probe

Appearing for Sabharwal, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan contended that the current investigation being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was not independent, and sought an independent judicial probe.

Along with Sabharwal, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) also filed a petition, seeking an independent judicial probe in the case.

‘Nobody can blame him for anything,’ says SC

Justice Surya Kant, who heard the petition today, told the 91-year-old grief-stricken father of the late pilot, "It's extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed. Nobody can blame him for anything."

Clarifying further, Justice Bagchi said that there was no insinuation against the deceased pilot in the preliminary AAIB report. "One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other; the other said no. There's no suggestion of fault in that report."

The court also termed the foreign reporting as "nasty" after the petitioner drew the court's attention to a report published in The Wall Street Journal in July, which claimed that it was the captain who turned off the fuel switches to the plane's engines. The bench clarified that foreign media reporting would not influence the judicial process.

"We are not bothered by foreign reports. Your remedy should then be before a foreign court. That is nasty reporting. No one in India believes it was the pilot's fault", the court observed.

SC flags leak of AAIB report

Earlier in September, while hearing a public interest litigation seeking a court-monitored investigation into the Air India crash, the top court flagged concerns over the selective leak of AAIB's preliminary report. The court noted that the leak fuelled a media narrative, attributing the crash to pilot error.

The bench described the selective and piecemeal publication of the preliminary report as “unfortunate” and emphasised that complete confidentiality must be maintained until the inquiry is concluded.

The matter will now be heard on November 10.