The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Centre on a plea made by the father of the pilot of the Air India flight AI 171 that crashed in Ahmedabad. The notice seeks an independent judicial inquiry into the crash and the alleged bias in the initial probe.
Then SC also said on Friday that the no blame could be attributed to the pilot of the Air India flight that was bound for London and crashed in June this year, killing 260 people.
A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the petition filed jointly by the the father of Commander Sumeet Sabharwal, one of the pilots of the flight, and the Federation of Indian Pilots. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, the father of the pilot, said that the current investigation, which is being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, was not independent.
“I am the father of the Commander of the plane... I am 91 years old. This is a non-independent investigation. It should have been independent. It has taken four months,” he said in the petition. He urged the court to order a judicially monitored probe under Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, which mandates impartiality in accident investigations.
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The bench then proceeded to send a notice to the Union government, saying that the case would be taken up along with another matter on November 10.
Bench says no fault with pilot
Justice Surya Kant addressed the pilot's father and said, “It's extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed. Nobody can blame him for anything,” Justice Bagchi also said that the there was no indication that the blame lay with the pilot in the preliminary report by the AAIB.
“One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other; the other said no. There's no suggestion of fault in that report,” the judge noted.
Investigation should include Boeing's systemic failure
The petitioners also said that the Ahmedabad crash must be viewed in the larger context of persistent safety issues with the Boeing aircraft globally. They said that the investigation should be handled by an authority capable of probing issues related to the Boeing's global record. Justice Bagchi, however, observed, “If you challenge the investigation, you have to challenge the statutory provisions of the Act itself.”
Foreign media cannot influence judicial process
He also spoke on his concerns about a Wall Street Journal article which, cited an unnamed Indian official and suggested that the crash occured due to pilot error. The bench stated that foreign media reports would not influence judicial processes in India. “We are not bothered by foreign reports. Your remedy should then be before a foreign court,” Justice Bagchi said, while Justice Kant added, “That is nasty reporting. No one in India believes it was the pilot's fault.”
In September the court expressed concern after having heard a seperate public interest litigation which sought a court moniterd probe into the crash. The SC said that the it was "unfortunate" that selective leaks from the preliminary AAIB report fuelled media narratives that blamed the pilot.
In June 2025, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner headed to London crashed in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off. The crash killed around 260 and had one sole survivor, making it one of the worst aviation disasters in recent years.
