Ahmedabad tragedy: Father of deceased pilot moves SC for judicial probe into Air India crash
New Delhi: The family of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was the Pilot-in-Command of the Air India aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking the constitution of a judicially monitored independent committee, led by a retired apex court judge, to investigate the incident, which claimed over 260 lives.
The plea alleged that the investigation ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is “defective and suffers from serious infirmities and perversities”.
The preliminary report, issued on June 15, attributed the crash to “pilot error, while overlooking other glaring and plausible systemic causes”.
“The report hastily infers the incident to pilot error, without any corroborative evidence or comprehensive technical analysis, thereby undermining both the integrity of the inquiry and the memory of the deceased crew,” it added.
Captain Sabharwal, the petition highlighted, had an “unblemished career spanning over 30 years” with more than 15,600 hours of incident-free flying, including 8,596 hours on the Boeing 787.
The petition raised questions on the unexplained deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), an emergency device, at take-off, before any crew inputs were made.
“This premature activation is a direct indicator of an electrical or digital malfunction,” the petition stated, contending that the investigation “ignored the possibility that faults in the Common Core System (CCS), integrating avionics, flight controls, power distribution, and software, may have triggered the sequence of failures”.
Citing nemo judex in causa sua (no one should be a judge in their own cause), the plea said that the investigation team is dominated by officials from the very aviation authorities whose systems are under scrutiny, such as the DGCA and the AAIB.
“Clause 3.2 of Annexe 13 (to the Chicago Convention) mandates that the investigation authority must be independent of State aviation authorities or any entity that could interfere with the investigation. The present team, being composed majorly of State aviation officers and representatives of the manufacturer, clearly violates this requirement of independence,” the petition alleged.
The petition also questioned the selective and unauthorised leak of cockpit voice recordings (CVR) into the public domain, calling it an act of maligning the deceased pilots without proof, amounting to state-facilitated defamation and mental cruelty to their families.
“These selective leaks have fuelled a malicious media campaign, resulting in the character assassination of Late Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal,” the petition said.
It further alleged that false narratives suggesting suicidal intent were circulated, thereby violating his fundamental right to reputation under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petition questioned the investigation for failing to account for prior incidents involving Boeing 787 aircraft, including the JAL battery fire (2013), ANA electrical failure (2013), and LATAM’s inflight upset (2024).
“The investigator’s failure to engage with this historical pattern demonstrates a deliberate narrowing of inquiry inconsistent with international standards of air crash investigation,” the plea said.
“Despite these known vulnerabilities, the investigation failed to seek technical clarifications from Boeing, GE, or Honeywell, or to commission independent software forensic or fault-injection testing,” it added.
The petition stated that the current investigative approach “not only undermines aviation safety and public confidence but also violates the principles of justice and fairness”.
“Only a judicially monitored, expert-driven investigation, independent of the regulatory authorities, can ensure a thorough, transparent, and credible determination of the true causes of this tragedy, uphold accountability, and prevent a repeat of such catastrophic failures,” the plea maintained.
