Mumbai/ New Delhi | The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has urged the government to order a judicial probe into the Air India Dreamliner crash that killed 260 people, alleging that the ongoing investigation is "compromised" and should be halted.
The FIP's demand comes less than a month after Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal who was one of the pilots of the ill-fated Air India plane, sought a formal investigation by the central government even as the probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is in progress.
"A flawed domestic probe compromises India's standing in the global aviation community. A judicial inquiry is therefore not only a matter of justice but also a necessary mechanism for the ministry to cure these profound procedural defects and mitigate its own legal and reputational exposure," FIP, which represents around 5,500 pilots, said in a letter dated September 22 to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu.
Unlike the AAIB's private, administrative process, a court can compel testimony under oath, issue summons, and demand the production of any and all documents from any party, including international manufacturers like Boeing and General Electric, the letter said.
The query sent to the ministry seeking comments on the letter did not elicit any immediate response.
Meanwhile, on September 22, a Supreme Court bench issued notices to the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the aspect of an independent, fair and expeditious probe of the crash, as it also mentioned that an element of privacy and dignity of families of victims was also involved.
The move came during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking an independent court-monitored probe into the accident.
The FIP has said the true, systemic, and unvarnished lessons of this tragedy should be learned and acted upon.
"A compromised, biased investigation that defaults to a simplistic and convenient 'pilot error' narrative is the single greatest threat to achieving that goal. It ensures that underlying dangers -- be they in design, maintenance, or oversight -- remain hidden, only to re-emerge in a future catastrophe".
In one of the worst aircraft accidents in India, a total of 260 people, including 241 passengers, died after Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad on June 12.
According to the FIP, the circumstances surrounding the AI 171 investigation make the constitution of a court of inquiry not merely "expedient," but an absolute and urgent necessity.
"The complete breakdown of trust, the manifest bias demonstrated by the AAIB, the public hysteria fuelled by illegal leaks, and the sheer scale of this national tragedy are precisely the conditions for which this provision was created," the pilots' grouping said in the letter.
While claiming that there is overwhelming evidence of a compromised investigation, the FIP said the central government should immediately constitute a 'Court of Inquiry' under Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017, and that the AAIB investigation must be formally halted.
In the letter, the pilots' association also mentioned about Pushkaraj Sabharwal's demand seeking a formal probe into the accident as well as an e-mail from his side alleging that a group of AAIB officials visited his residence on August 30 and that during interaction, they made speculative remarks that his son had moved the fuel control switches from Run to Cut off after take off.
AAIB, in its preliminary report released on July 12, had said the fuel supply to both engines of the plane was cut off within a gap of one second, causing confusion in the cockpit soon after takeoff. "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it had said.
The Supreme Court, on September 22, termed as "unfortunate and irresponsible" the selective publication of a preliminary report on the June 12 Air India crash which outlined lapses on the part of pilots and paved way for a "media narrative"
