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Journalism of Courage
Pilot grouping Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has written to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) demanding that the Central government initiate a judicial investigation—through a court of inquiry—into the fatal crash of Air India flight AI 171 in Ahmedabad on June 12. In the strongly-worded letter, the pilot association alleged that the ongoing probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is “untenable” as the some of the bureau’s actions and selective leaks have “fundamentally and irrevocably compromised the integrity, impartiality, and legality” of the investigation process.
The FIP’s demand follows a similar ask made by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, the 91-year-old father of Sumeet Sabharwal, who was one of the pilots of the ill-fated Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft that crashed, claiming the lives of 241 of the 242 people on board, along with 19 others on the ground.
In fact, quoting the father, the FIP has alleged that a delegation of AAIB officials made an unsolicited visit to his house on August 30 under the pretext of offering condolences, but made damaging “insinuations” based on a “selective CVR (cockpit voice recorder) interpretation and a “layered voice analysis”, suggesting that Sumeet Sabharwal had deliberately moved the engine fuel control switches to the CUTOFF position post-takeoff. The pilot grouping termed this visit and the interaction as a “gross and calculated overreach of the AAIB’s mandate”.
“It represents a deliberate strategic manoeuvre designed to pre-emptively establish a ‘pilot error’ narrative. By confronting a grieving, vulnerable family member with speculative and uncorroborated claims outside of any formal investigative report, the officials were attempting to control the public and official discourse before a comprehensive analysis of all factors was complete,” the FIP wrote in the letter.
“The actions undertaken by the AAIB in the intervening period have not only violated statutory rules and ethical norms but have also shattered the confidence of the bereaved families and the aviation fraternity in the current investigative process. Therefore, it is a formal demand, grounded in law and precedent, for the immediate invocation of a judicial probe. We assert that this is the only remaining path to salvage the credibility of the accident investigation process in India, deliver justice to all the souls lost, and uphold public faith in our nation’s commitment to aviation safety,” the pilot association said, demanding a probe as per Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017.
The provision empowers the central government to order a formal investigation through a court of inquiry if it deems it fit, even if the regular investigation by the AAIB is already underway. The FIP submitted that the circumstances surrounding the AI 171 crash investigation make the constitution of a court of inquiry not just “expedient” but an “absolute and urgent necessity”. It alleged that 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 AAIB’s preliminary investigation report, released a month after the accident, said that the Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft crashed after both its engines were starved of fuel as the two fuel control switches transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position within a second of each other moments after lift-off. From the cockpit voice recorder data, the preliminary probe report notes that one of the pilots asked the other why he cut off the fuel, to which the other pilot responded saying he did not.
To be sure, the report didn’t mention that fuel control switches—which allow and cut fuel flow to the plane’s engines—moved physically, and used the term “transitioned” to describe the change of mode from RUN to CUTOFF. It also didn’t state these were moved by either of the pilots. However, the selective information presented in the report had many believing that it implicitly pointed a finger at the pilots, particularly Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot. Pilot bodies, including the FIP, had earlier raised strong objections to the preliminary report, which was released a month after the crash.
“These unlawful disclosures have fuelled a vicious and baseless media campaign, resulting in the character assassination of a decorated professional. Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with an unblemished 30-year career…has been posthumously subjected to grotesque speculation about his mental state. Media reports, citing these leaks, have concocted a narrative of suicidal intent, absurdly linking it to his divorce 15 years prior and his mother’s passing over three years ago—events after which he operated hundreds of flights without incident,” the FIP wrote.
“The AAIB’s violation of its own statutory framework creates significant legal and international liability for the Government of India…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,” the grouping said.
According to the FIP, the critical distinction of a court of inquiry is that it possesses “all the powers of a civil court”. 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, “whose representatives, it is alleged, have already unduly influenced the preliminary report”, the FIP said.
“This is the only mechanism that can guarantee the level of transparency and forensic rigour this disaster demands. Crucially, upon the appointment of the Court, all other investigations are formally closed, and all materials are transferred to it, providing a clean slate and a definitive end to the AAIB’s compromised process,” the FIP said.
The pilot group submitted that the nature of crash—which happened within a minute or so of take-off—bears the “hallmarks of a non-recoverable system failure”.
“A credible investigation must therefore reframe its central question. The inquiry should not be limited to ‘Did the pilots make a mistake?’ but must ask the far more critical question: ‘Was the crew presented with a survivable event?’ This shift in perspective moves the focus from the crew’s final, desperate actions to the entire causal chain preceding them: aircraft design, software integrity, maintenance history, and regulatory certification. The AAIB, by focusing narrowly on the fuel switches, is examining a potential effect while ignoring a universe of potential causes. Only a judicial probe, with its broad mandate and powers, can competently investigate this entire chain and determine if this accident was a failure of human action or a failure of system recoverability,” the FIP wrote.
