Describing the ‘pilot error’ narrative after the AI 171 crash as “unfortunate”, the Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to a petition seeking an independent probe into the tragedy.
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 criticised 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 organisation 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.
