Air India crash: Preliminary report does not blame pilot, Centre clarifies to Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The ministry of civil aviation on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the preliminary report does not blame the Air India pilot for the crash that claimed 260 lives. The submission came as the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and the DGCA on a plea filed by the father of a deceased pilot requesting an independent investigation into the incident.The Centre informed the court that an AAIB probe team was constituted “under international regime” to examine the Air India plane crash and that the investigation remains underway. Citing the presence of foreign nationals among the victims, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the probe will proceed in line with ICAO protocols.Following the hearing of Centre's submission, the SC directed the petitioners- captain Sumit Sabharwal's father and the NGO Safety Matters Foundation- to file their counter-affidavit.The Air India crash in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people was termed by the Supreme Court as "unfortunate." A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi observed, "No one in India believes it was the pilot's fault." To ensure a fair, transparent and technically sound probe, the top court also issued a notice to the centre and DGCA seeking a retired judge-monitored proceeding in the crash of Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.Representing the petitioner, father of the pilot-in-command of the London-bound flight, Saurabh Sabharwal, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan raised the concern that the investigation conducted by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was not independent and that the pilot might have been getting blamed unfairly."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.The 91-year-old Pushkaraj Sabharwal, along with the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has petitioned for a judicially monitored committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge and comprising independent aviation experts.