Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of deceased Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, and the Federation of Indian Pilots have moved the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored inquiry headed by a former Supreme Court judge into the on June 12 crash of Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people.
On September 22, the Supreme Court said certain aspects of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) preliminary report on the crash indicated lapses on the part of pilots, and had issued notices to the Centre and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on another plea seeking an independent, fair and expeditious probe.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal, 91, has sought a “fair, transparent and technically robust” investigation into the tragic incident.
“An incomplete and prejudiced inquiry, without identification of the exact cause of the accident, endangers the lives of future passengers and undermines aviation safety at large, causing a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution,” the plea said.
The petition, filed through AP&J Chambers on October 10, made the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, the DGCA , and the Director General of the AAIB as respondents, and is likely to come up for hearing after Deepavali vacation.
The plea seeks directions for the constitution of an independent committee, comprising aviation and technical experts also, to probe the crash that killed 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground.
The ill-fated aircraft had taken off from Ahmedabad for London Gatwick but crashed within minutes, impacting the B.J. Medical College hostel located less than a nautical mile from the end of runway.
The debris was strewn over an area of nearly 1,000 by 400 feet, indicating a high-energy impact.
The Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) failed to activate, and both the pilot-in-command Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Captain Clive Kunder lost their lives in the crash, the plea said.
The petition said that the official investigation conducted by the AAIB and the DGCA is “defective, biased, and technically unsound”.
The preliminary report, issued on July 12, 2025, is alleged to have wrongly attributed the cause of the crash to pilot error, while ignoring multiple systemic and technical failures that could have played a decisive role.
According to the petition, “the inquiry team, rather than undertaking a comprehensive technical investigation, appears to have disproportionately focused on the deceased pilots, who can no longer defend themselves and overlooked plausible evidence of electrical, software, or design-level failures”.
The plea said that such an approach not only tarnishes the reputation of the deceased crew but also undermines aviation safety, violating the right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
“Issue an appropriate writ, order, or direction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India and constitute a Judicially Monitored Committee or Court of Inquiry, headed by a retired Judge of this Hon’ble Court, with independent aviation and technical experts as its members, to conduct a fair, transparent, and technically robust investigation into the crash…,” the plea said.
It also sought a direction that all prior investigations conducted so far into the crash, “including the preliminary report dated July 12, be treated as closed and all relevant materials, data, and records be transferred to the Judicially Monitored Committee or Court of Inquiry”.
The father of the late Sumeet Sabharwal said his son had an “unblemished career spanning over 30 years, with 15,638 hours of incident-free flying, including 8,596 hours on Boeing 787-8 aircraft, without a single reported lapse or incident causing fatalities or otherwise”.
The approach of the investigation has resulted in a failure to adequately examine, or rule out, other more plausible technical and procedural factors relating to the Boeing that could have contributed to the tragic incident, the plea said.
“It is respectfully submitted that the five-member investigation team appointed by the Respondents to investigate the crash of the Aircraft is manifestly illegal and void, as it violates the fundamental principle of natural justice, i.e. nemo judex in causa sua, which mandates that no person should be a judge in their own cause,” it said.
The probe team is dominated by officers from DGCA, the state aviation authorities whose procedures, oversight, and possible lapses are directly implicated in the investigation, it said.
“Moreover, the officers are placed under the control of the DG, AAIB, thereby creating a situation where the very entities responsible for regulating and overseeing civil aviation are effectively investigating themselves. This, combined with the involvement of Boeing and General Electric representatives, undermines the impartiality, credibility, and reliability of the Report..,” the plea said.
Published – October 16, 2025 05:14 pm IST
