Air India Crash: Father of pilot killed in Ahmedabad Air India crash seeks independent investigation

The father of Captain Sumeet Sabarwal, who died in the June crash of Air India Flight AI-171 that claimed 260 lives, petitioned India’s Supreme Court on Thursday for an independent inquiry into the tragedy.

Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, 91, requested that a panel of aviation experts, led by a retired Supreme Court judge, conduct the investigation. The plea comes weeks after he publicly criticized the government-led probe into the disaster, questioning the preliminary findings issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

According to the court filing, the AAIB report is “seriously flawed,” attributing the crash primarily to pilot error while ignoring other systemic factors that may have contributed. The petition warns that an incomplete inquiry “endangers the lives of future passengers and undermines aviation safety at large,” invoking Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life.

The preliminary AAIB report noted that fuel supply to both engines of the aircraft was cut off within a second of each other, causing confusion in the cockpit shortly after takeoff. Cockpit voice recordings captured one pilot asking the other, “Why did you cut off?” with the second pilot replying, “I did not do so.”

Two AAIB officials who visited Sabharwal reportedly suggested that Captain Sabarwal himself had shut off the engines, a claim he disputes. The AAIB has emphasized that it is premature to draw definitive conclusions from the preliminary report and has urged caution in circulating unverified narratives ahead of the final investigation, which will identify the root causes of the crash.