Father of slain pilot Sumeet Sabharwal moves Supreme Court for an independent probe after the Air India Ahmedabad crash that killed 260; petition seeks retired SC judge–led panel to examine technical causes beyond pilot action.
The father of Air India pilot Sumeet Sabharwal has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an independent, judicially led inquiry into the Ahmedabad crash that killed 260 people on June 12, arguing the government probe has focused disproportionately on pilot error and ignored plausible technical and procedural causes. The petition requests a panel headed by a retired Supreme Court judge with aviation experts as members to re-open and broaden the investigation.
Sumeet Sabharwal’s plea was filed jointly with the Federation of Indian Pilots and follows months of friction between families, pilot bodies and investigators over leaked findings and public commentary. The family says two AAIB officials implied Sabharwal may have cut the fuel to the engines after takeoff — a claim his father and pilots’ groups dispute and say must be tested against other technical explanations. The AAIB’s preliminary report did note the Dreamliner’s fuel engine switches moved from run to cutoff shortly after takeoff, a detail the petitioners want examined alongside cockpit voice and flight-data records, maintenance logs and ground handling procedures.
New judicial oversight, the petition argues, is needed to restore public confidence and ensure the inquiry canvasses human, technical and procedural possibilities without premature attribution of blame. The government has defended the current probe as thorough; the Supreme Court has not yet listed the case for hearing. Observers say the petition could lead to a broader judicial review of aviation safety processes if the court accepts the request for an expert judge-led panel.
