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The Supreme Court connected Friday (November 7, 2025) orally observed that no responsibility could beryllium ascribed to the pilot who was commanding the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed soon aft take-off from Ahmedabad connected June 12.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was proceeding a petition filed by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, the begetter of the precocious Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, seeking a judicially monitored probe into the clang and the termination of the probe presently being carried retired by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
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Appearing for the petitioner, elder advocator Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted that the ongoing probe lacked independence. “I americium the begetter of the Commander of the plane... I americium 91 years old. This is simply a non-independent investigation”, helium said, urging the Bench to nonstop a judicially monitored enquiry into the accident.
Allaying the petitioner’s concerns that his lad mightiness beryllium unfairly held responsible, Justice Kant said, “This clang is highly unfortunate, but you should not transportation the load that your lad is being blamed. Nobody tin blasted him for anything.”
Justice Bagchi concurred, noting that the preliminary AAIB study contained nary adverse remarks against the pilot. “One aviator asked whether the substance was chopped disconnected by the other, and the different said no. There is nary proposition of responsibility successful that report,” helium observed.
The Bench besides took enactment of the petitioner’s notation to a Wall Street Journal study that had attributed the clang to aviator mistake based connected an unnamed authorities source, and clarified that specified overseas reports would transportation nary value successful the court’s proceedings.
“We are not acrophobic with what overseas media reports say. If you judge they person defamed your son, your remedy lies earlier a overseas court,” Justice Bagchi said. Justice Kant added, “That is nasty reporting. No 1 successful India believes it was the pilot’s fault.”
Accordingly, the Bench issued announcement connected the plea and directed that it beryllium heard on with a pending petition filed by the NGO Safety Matters connected November 10. It besides sought responses from the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) connected the petition for an autarkic probe.
The petition said that the authoritative probe conducted by the AAIB and the DGCA is “defective” and that important method grounds was either misinterpreted oregon ignored. It besides noted that the aircraft’s Ram Air Turbine (RAT) — an exigency powerfulness generator that automatically deploys erstwhile some the superior and backup electrical systems neglect — was activated earlier the pilots made immoderate power inputs. This, the plea argued, pointed to a imaginable electrical oregon bundle malfunction alternatively than aviator error.
The petition besides criticised the nonaccomplishment to analyse the harm to the formation information recorder, noting that its protective casing was recovered melted but without soot deposits, a item the petition describes arsenic a superior investigative lapse.
On September 22, the Supreme Court, portion proceeding different petition seeking a court-monitored autarkic probe into the crash, had censured the “selective” merchandise of the AAIB’s preliminary report and called media reports attributing blasted to aviator mistake earlier the enquiry was implicit “irresponsible.”
The Bench headed by Justice Kant had issued notices to the Union Government and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) “for the constricted intent of ensuring a fair, impartial, and expeditious probe by an adept body.” However, the judges had made it wide that they were not astatine this signifier considering the nationalist disclosure of immoderate portion of the probe.
