Bench to hear plea for independent inquiry on November 10
TNR News Network
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (November 7, 2025) agreed to hear on November 10 a petition filed by 91-year-old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, father of the late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, along with the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), demanding a court-supervised investigation into the Air India Flight AI171 crash in Ahmedabad.
The June 12, 2025, crash of the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner claimed 265 lives, including those of both pilots and the cabin crew and a few persons on the ground.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Union government, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), asking them to respond. The case will be taken up alongside another petition seeking an independent probe into the same incident.
Top Court says he ‘must not carry the burden’
During the hearing, Justice Surya Kant sought to comfort the grieving father, telling him, “It’s deeply unfortunate that this accident occurred, but you must not carry the burden that your son is being blamed. Nobody in India believes it was the pilot’s fault. There’s no suggestion of any lapse on his part in the preliminary report.”
The Bench observed that the initial AAIB findings contained no evidence indicating pilot negligence. Referring to media reports suggesting otherwise, Justice Kant remarked, “We are not concerned with what foreign publications report. Those are irresponsible claims — no one here attributes blame to the pilots.”
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, argued that the current AAIB investigation lacked independence and transparency. He requested the court to appoint a committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge and independent aviation experts to ensure a fair and technically sound inquiry, as required under Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules.
Petitioners cite bias, media leaks, technical oversights
The petition accuses the ongoing probe of being biased, incomplete, and structurally flawed, alleging that the regulatory agencies are investigating themselves — a breach of the principle that no one should judge their own case.
It claims that the AAIB report unfairly focused on the deceased pilots while neglecting possible technical and design-related failures in Boeing’s systems.
The petitioners also alleged unauthorized leaks of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data, which fueled a “malicious media narrative” blaming the pilots. Such actions, they said, violated confidentiality norms and infringed upon the right to dignity of the deceased pilot and his family.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had an unblemished 30-year flying record with over 15,600 flight hours, was described in the plea as a highly experienced and safety-conscious aviator. The petition argues that by ignoring key technical anomalies, including unexplained equipment failures and ignored warning signals, investigators risk overlooking deeper systemic flaws that could endanger future flights.
As the Supreme Court prepares to revisit the case on November 10, the families of those lost in the crash await clarity — and, as the Bench reassured, the dignity and honour due to those who took their final flight in service of others.
