Ahmedabad plane crash: SC asks Govt to file probe status report in 3 weeks

The court was hearing petitions, including one by the father of one of the pilots, who died in the crash.

At the very outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the probe was “at its fag end”. He said that as per the global mechanism in place for investigation in such matters, it would require investigation in some foreign countries, and also, when passengers belong to other nationalities, a representative of that nationality is included in the probe team. “It might take little more time,” he said and urged the court to grant three more weeks.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a petitioner, said, “What has happened is something very alarming. After this accident three other Air India aircraft of the same, Boeing 787 have suffered similar problems.”

The CJI said it was a “very unfortunate accident” but asked parties not to go by media reports.

“Don’t go by these media reports. Last week or so, they were saying Boeing Dreamliner 787 coming from London to Bengaluru, its switch was found to be in some emergent condition. I have been closely following because on Sunday only, I was in Dreamliner from Paris to Delhi. Nothing was found (in the London to Bengaluru flight). The airline came out with an official statement that the switch was perfectly in order,” he said.

Bhushan said the government’s own manual, the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017, “requires that in such matters when there is a serious accident involving loss of lives, there has to be a court of inquiry, which is in addition to if not in substitution of this investigation…”.

He also flagged the conflict of interest in the current probe by the AAIB, saying three of its members are officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) whose regulatory actions and faults are under the scanner.

Bhushan contended that the government is yet to file a counter-affidavit in the matter although the notice was issued in September last year. The counsel said that “the entire pilots association, 8000 pilots are saying jointly that these 787s are unsafe and should be grounded”.

Mehta countered this: “Nobody has told us.” Bhushan said the pilot associations had written to the government.

The CJI said, “Losing 260 lives in a few seconds is not a small tragedy for any nation… For the parents, losing a pilot son like this, we can understand, we have sympathy with the father, we really don’t know how he will be able to come out of such a shock. But let us also be very very conservative in making observations against any particular brand of aircraft…There was a time Dreamliner has been treated as best and one of the safest aircraft.”

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the 91-year-old father of one of the pilots who died, and the Federation of Pilots, urged the court to direct that the report be submitted in a sealed cover as he had apprehension that it will be leaked.

“There are two crashes which happened of Boeing 737s, different models but from the same manufacturer. In both cases, blame was placed at the pilot’s door. Eventually, Federal Aviation Administration found there were faults in both aircraft, one in Ethiopia and the other in Indonesia. The document which showed that defect was withheld from the US Senate and the public and the pilots who had flown those aircraft. Eventually, the matter was settled without prosecution, several billion dollars.”

Indicating that many countries were using the Boeing 787s, the CJI said, “Grounding of Dreamliner will lead to grounding of airline which is serving many countries.”

Mehta said, “I have discussed with experts in the aviation ministry. There is a very detailed investigation taking place. Because we cannot lay blame on anyone without investigation.”

The CJI asked him to complete the inquiry in three weeks.