SC offers solace to Air-India pilot’s father
The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday said no one blamed the chief pilot of the Air India Dreamliner for the June 12 crash, which claimed 260 lives, and asked his 91-year-old father not to carry any emotional burden.
“There is no insinuation against him even in the preliminary report,” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said, emphasising that, if necessary, the court will clarify that the pilot is not to be blamed for the “unfortunate” plane crash.
The top court issued notice to the Centre and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on a plea of Pushkaraj Sabharwal, the father of deceased pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots have moved the Supreme Court for a court-monitored inquiry headed by a former apex court judge into the crash of Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad.
“First of all, it was an unfortunate plane crash and secondly, you should not carry a burden on yourself that your son is being blamed. The pilot is not to be blamed for the plane crash. It was an accident,” the bench told senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Pushkaraj Sabharwal.
“No one in the county believes that it was the fault of the pilot,” it said.
Sankaranarayanan said it all started after the US publication Wall Street Journal put out a news report pointing to errors on the part of the pilot that led to the plane crash and citing unnamed Government sources.
The bench said, “It was a nasty reporting only to blame India. We are not bothered by foreign media reports. No one in the country believes that it was the fault of the pilot.”
Sankaranarayanan said, “I am aggrieved because my son was attacked.”
Justice Bagchi said if the petitioner is aggrieved by the foreign media reports, then, with respect, his remedy lies in an American court, where he can file a suit.
“Your angst is understandable but there is clear incongruity between public perception and the factual position,” Justice Bagchi added.
The judges read out a paragraph from the preliminary report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) issued on July 12 and said nowhere does it state that the pilot is to be blamed and it only refers to the conversation between him and his co-pilot.
“There is just a mention of the cockpit recorder where one pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other and the other pilot said no. There’s no suggestion of any fault in that report. There is no question of apportioning blame on them,” Justice Bagchi said.
Sankaranarayanan pointed out that there were persistent safety issues involving Boeing aircraft globally and the Ahmedabad crash must be viewed in that larger context.
“The scope of the AAIB investigation is not to blame but to suggest preventive measures. If necessary, we will clarify that the pilot cannot be blamed,” the bench said.
“We are a country of around 142 crore people and none of them believes the blame has to go to the pilot. Whatever could be the reason for the tragedy, it is not the pilots,” it added.
Sankaranarayanan said that they want an independent probe into the matter and the preliminary report prepared after the tragedy was not based on an independent investigation.
Justice Bagchi said the investigation into the accident was conducted according to the process.
“If you challenge the investigation, you have to challenge the statutory provisions of the (Aircraft) Act itself,” the judge said.
Sankaranarayanan said, “These pilots are offering their services to the nation. Such kind of insinuations... That’s very sad.” The bench listed the matter for further hearing on November 10, along with other pending petitions on the crash.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal has sought a “fair, transparent and technically robust” investigation into the tragic incident.
He said his son had an “unblemished career spanning over 30 years, with 15,638 hours of incident-free flying, including 8,596 hours on Boeing 787-8 aircraft, without a single reported lapse or incident causing fatalities or otherwise”.
The petition, filed through AP&J Chambers on October 10, made the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA and AAIB respondents.
The plea seeks directions for the constitution of an independent committee, also comprising aviation and technical experts, to probe the crash.
The approach of the investigation has resulted in a failure to adequately examine, or rule out, other more plausible technical and procedural factors relating to Boeing that could have contributed to the tragic incident, the plea said.
“An incomplete and prejudiced inquiry, without identification of the exact cause of the accident, endangers the lives of future passengers and undermines aviation safety at large, causing a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution,” it said.
The probe team is dominated by officers from DGCA and the state aviation authorities whose procedures, oversight and possible lapses are directly implicated in the investigation, it added.
The ill-fated aircraft took off from Ahmedabad for London Gatwick but crashed within minutes, impacting the BJ Medical College hostel located less than a nautical mile from the end of the runway.
The Emergency Locator Transmitter failed to activate, and both the pilot-in-command, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and the co-pilot, Captain Clive Kunder, lost their lives in the crash, the plea said.
