NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday told the 91-year-old father of the pilot who died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad that his son should not be blamed for the tragedy, calling it an accident with no evidence of pilot fault.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the plea. “You should not burden yourself. The pilot should not be blamed for the plane crash. It was an accident. There is no indication against him even in the initial report,” the bench told Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of Captain Sumit Sabharwal.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Sabharwal, said the Wall Street Journal had published an article blaming the pilot for the crash. Responding to this, the bench remarked, “That was just bad reporting to blame India.”
Reading a portion of the preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) issued on July 12, the court noted that the report nowhere held the pilot responsible. It merely referred to a conversation between the two pilots before the accident.
“The scope of the AAIB inquiry is not to make allegations, but to suggest preventive measures to avoid future tragedies,” the bench observed. It added that if necessary, the court would clarify that the pilot cannot be held responsible.
The case will be heard again on November 10 along with other related petitions.
A total of 260 people, including 229 passengers, were killed in the June 12 crash. Last month, Pushkaraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots had sought a court-monitored probe into the incident, led by a former Supreme Court judge, to ensure an “impartial, transparent and technically sound” investigation.
