No one is blaming your son, SC tells father of crashed AI jet pilot

The June 12, 2025 crash of the London-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner claimed the lives of 265 people, including both pilots and crew members.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre, the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

It directed the matter to be listed for further hearing on November 10, when another petition on the issue was scheduled to be taken up.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that this crash took place, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed... Nobody can blame him for anything… No one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault… It was an accident. There is no insinuation against him even in the preliminary report,” Justice Kant told 91-year-old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, the father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal.

“One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other; the other said no. There's no suggestion of fault in that report,” the Bench noted.

The court’s comments came after senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted on behalf of the petitioners that the current investigation by the AAIB was not independent and that the pilots were unnecessarily being blamed for the crash.

“I am the father of the Commander of the plane... I am 91 years old. This is a non-independent investigation. It should have been independent. It has taken four months,” Sankaranarayanan submitted.

He requested the top court to order a court-monitored probe under Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, which mandated impartiality in accident investigations.

As Sankaranarayanan drew the court's attention to a Wall Street Journal report which allegedly suggested pilot error, citing an unnamed Indian government source, the Bench said, “We are not bothered by foreign reports. Your remedy should then be before a foreign court… That is nasty reporting. No one in India believes it was the pilots’ fault.”

The petitioners have sought the setting up of a court-monitored committee comprising a retired judge of the Supreme Court and independent aviation and technical experts to conduct a fair, transparent and technically robust probe into the crash.

They have urged the top court to direct that all investigations carried out so far, including the preliminary report dated July 12, be treated as closed and all records, data and evidence be transferred to the new inquiry panel to be set up.

Terming the ongoing probe as “incomplete, biased, and technically unsound,” the petitioners said it undermined India’s obligations under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annexe 13, which mandated an independent investigation authority.