The father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the pilot-in-command who was among the 275 persons who died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, has moved the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored judicial inquiry into the incident, Bar and Bench reported on Thursday.

The writ petition was jointly filed by 91-year-old Pushkaraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots on October 10.

It seeks the setting up of an independent investigative committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, with aviation and technical experts as members, PTI reported.

The petitioners contend that the investigation being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and the head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is “defective, biased, and technically unsound”, the news agency reported.

They allege that the preliminary report released on July 12 “rather than undertaking a comprehensive technical investigation, appears to have disproportionately focused on the deceased pilots, who can no longer defend themselves and overlooked plausible evidence of electrical, software, or design-level failures”.

The petition further contended that the five-member probe team was composed largely of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and state aviation authorities whose own oversight procedures are under question, making them effectively investigators in their own case.

“It violates the fundamental principle of natural justice, i.e. nemo judex in causa sua, which mandates that no person should be a judge in their own cause,” PTI quoted the petition as saying.

The plea also highlights the presence of representatives from Boeing and General Electric, saying that it “undermines the impartiality, credibility and reliability of the report”.

The petition before the Supreme Court contests the claim that the pilots mistakenly shut down both engines by switching the fuel controls from “run” to “cut off” during take-off, arguing that such near-simultaneous actions under stressful conditions were implausible, India Today reported.

“This strongly suggests an automatic or corrupted digital command, not human intervention,” the petition added.

It also cites a serious breach of confidentiality, claiming that cockpit voice recordings were allegedly leaked to The Wall Street Journal before the official release of the findings, fuelling a “malicious media campaign” that harmed Sumeet Sabharwal’s posthumous reputation.

In its preliminary report the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that moments after the aircraft took off, its fuel control switches transitioned from “run” to “cut off” within a second of each other, because of which both engines shut down.

The report said that one of the pilots could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he shut down the fuel, in response to which the other pilot said that he did not.

After a gap of about 10 seconds, the switches went back to the “run” position, in what appeared to be an attempt by the pilots to regain thrust in the engines. Subsequently, one of the engines progressed to recovery, and deceleration stopped. But deceleration could not be stopped on the second engine.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which was en route to London’s Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad, crashed 33 seconds after taking off.

There were 242 persons aboard the aircraft. One passenger survived with “impact injuries”.

Thirty-four persons were killed on the ground after the aircraft crashed into the hostel building of the BJ Medical College and Hospital in Ahmedabad, according to Air India.

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting