New Delhi: Four months after 260 people were killed in an AI-171 plane crash in Ahmedabad, the father of pilot late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal has moved the Supreme Court. The victim’s father has also demanded the constitution of a judicial oversight committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge to investigate the accident.
The petition argues that there are serious flaws in the preliminary investigation of the accident. “The petition filed by Pushkarraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots said, “Instead of conducting a comprehensive technical investigation, the investigation team has focused primarily on the dead pilots who are no longer able to defend themselves, while failing to investigate or address other more possible technical and procedural causes of the accident.
The petitioners emphasise that factual misinformation through selected disclosures, especially about crew members who cannot defend themselves, hinders the search for the root cause and poses a threat to future flight safety, hence an impartial judicial approach is required.
The petition seeks the constitution of a judicial monitoring committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge and involving independent experts from the aviation sector as members for a fair, transparent and technically sound investigation into the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft crash.
The petition states that the investigation conducted by the defendants is tainted by selective and incomplete disclosure of physical facts, neglect of significant inconsistencies and suppressing systemic reasons pointing to design or electronic malfunctions.
It said, “The report hastily assumes the incident to be the pilot’s fault, without any corroborated evidence or extensive technical analysis.” This undermines both the credibility of the investigation and the memory of the dead crew. The defendants in the petition are: Union of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and Director General, Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB).
The petition said that the preliminary report contains serious technical glitches and omissions, making its findings unreliable. “The petition said, “It has failed to analyse the significance of the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), neglecting to investigate the possible failure of Boeing’s Common Core System (CCS).” It also provides no adequate explanation for the simultaneous destruction of multiple redundant security and data systems. These factors signal systemic electrical breakdown rather than human error.”
The petition states that the conclusion of the report stating the reason to the pilot’s error is inherently unreliable and contrary to the recorded data, as the deployment of the RAT preceded any manual pilot input,
“The petition said, “The failure to correlate the crew’s control input with the RAT extension demonstrates in the exercise of discretion and suppression of facts, thereby violating the mandate of a fair, rational and evidence-based investigation guaranteed under Article 14.”
“The petition stated, “The defendants have unlawfully disclosed the contents of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) in direct violation of Rule 17(5) of the 2017 Rules.” The select leaks have fueled a malicious media campaign, resulting in posthumous condemnation of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and a violation of his and his family’s right to honour and dignity, which is an integral part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
