Air India crash investigation: In the wake of questions being raised on the investigation and the preliminary report into the crash of Air India flight AI 171 by pilot associations and the father of one of the pilots of the ill-fated aircraft, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said Tuesday that there was no “manipulation” or “dirty business” happening in the probe that is being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). “There is no manipulation, or there is no dirty business happening in the investigation. It is a very clean and very thorough process that we are doing, according to the rules that have been set up. We are going to ensure that the commitment will be maintained,” Naidu said. The minister added that the AAIB keeps a “thorough, transparent, and independent” approach, and that it would be better to wait for the final report, instead of commenting on the preliminary report. “It will be too early to comment on the initial or preliminary report, because that is not the final report. And what AAIB has done is to place the facts through the (preliminary) report, whatever is known. To find.whatever happened, we need to wait for the final report,” Naidu said, adding that it would take the AAIB some time to come out with the final report. The interim report, which was released a month after the June 12 crash of the Air India Boeing 787-8 in Ahmedabad, came under criticism from various sections, particularly pilots, as many interpreted it as hinting at pilot action as the primary cause of the tragic crash that killed 260 people. About two weeks ago, pilot grouping Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) demanding that the Central government initiate a judicial investigation—through a court of inquiry—into the crash. In the strongly-worded letter, the pilot association alleged that the ongoing probe by the AAIB was “untenable” as some of the bureau’s actions and selective leaks had “fundamentally and irrevocably compromised the integrity, impartiality, and legality” of the investigation process. The FIP’s demand followed 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 aircraft. He alleged that the preliminary report and selective leaks have tarnished his son’s reputation and adversely affected his own health. He termed the report as “deficient, diversionary and discrepant”, and objected strongly to speculation and insinuations about his son’s mental health and the pilot suicide theory doing rounds in sections of the media. Quoting Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, the FIP 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 AAIB’s preliminary investigation report said that the 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 Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot. “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.
