Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on November 7 termed the Air India Flight 171 crash in June in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people as unfortunate, and observed that nobody could blame the pilot for the crash. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said, “no one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault.” The top court also issued notices to the Centre, DGCA and others on a plea filed by the father of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was the Pilot-in-Command of the Air India pilot in a London-bound flight from Ahmedabad, seeking a retired judge-monitored fair, transparent, and technically sound probe into the crash of Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that the current investigation being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was not independent.He raised concerns that the pilot might be unfairly blamed for the accident.”It’s extremely unfortunate that this crash took place, but you (father) should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed… Nobody can blame him (Pilot) for anything,” Justice Kant said.
Justice Bagchi also said that there was no insinuation against the pilot in the preliminary AAIB report.”One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other, the other said no. There is no suggestion of fault in that report,” the judge said.A petitioner’s counsel said that the Wall Street Journal has carried an article based on the investigation, and suggested pilot error by citing an unnamed Indian government source.To this, the bench replied that it is “not bothered by foreign reports”.”That is nasty reporting. No one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault,” said the bench. The top court then posted the matter for hearing on November 10.
