The Air India pilot has not been blamed in the AAIB’s preliminary report into the June 12 plane crash that claimed 260 lives, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The Union government further informed the apex court that a team of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was set up to look into the Air India plane crash under an international regime, and the investigation is currently underway.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) probe team into the plane crash was formed under the international regime and there is a statutory provision for it.
Justice Bagchi said, “The AAIB inquiry is not for apportion blame on anyone. It is only to clarify the cause so that the same does not happen again.” Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, said that a parallel inquiry should be done like a court of inquiry into the accident of such a major scale.
He said that a pilot federation has stated that these airplanes cannot be trusted and there is a huge risk on people flying in their aircraft.
Justice Kant said these proceedings should not become a fight between one airline versus another airline, and asked Mehta to file the response to the plea filed by the father of the deceased father.
The bench adjourned the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
The plea by Captain Sabharwal’s father and the Federation of Indian Pilots has sought a court-monitored investigation into the June 12 crash, arguing that the preliminary AAIB findings suggesting possible “human error” were defective and ignored evidence of a potential electrical or systems failure. The petition maintains that to infer pilot error without ruling out mechanical or software malfunction unfairly maligns the deceased cockpit crew and undermines public trust in the investigation.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the 91-year-old father of the deceased commander, had told the court during the last hearing that the ongoing investigation by the DGCA and the AAIB was “not independent”.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan had taken note of the submissions and also sought to reassure the petitioner on his apprehension that his son was being unfairly blamed for the crash. “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,” the court stated.
The SC further had stated that the preliminary AAIB report did not contain any insinuation against the pilot, adding that the short cockpit conversation cited in the preliminary report did not attribute any blame. The court, while commenting on a Wall Street Journal report suggesting pilot error, had stated: “We are not bothered by foreign reports. That is nasty reporting. No one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault.”
On June 12, Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 en route to London's Gatwick airport crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 265 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board.
Among the 241 dead were 169 Indians, 52 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian and 12 crew members.
The lone survivor of the crash was Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national.