Air India Plane Crash Case: Preliminary Report Does Not Blame AI Pilot For Ahmedabad Tragedy, Centre Tells SC

Air India Crash Case: The Centre on Thursday apprised the Supreme Court that the Air India pilot has not been blamed in the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB)'s preliminary report into the June 12 plane crash that claimed 260 lives.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the top court that the AAIB probe team into the plane crash was formed under the international regime, and there is a statutory provision for it.

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What Supreme Court Said?

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing the matter. "The AAIB inquiry is not for apportion blame on anyone. It is only to clarify the cause so that the same does not happen again," Justice Bagchi said.

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NGO Demands Parallel Inquiry

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, said that a parallel inquiry should be done, like a court of inquiry, into the accident of such a major scale. Bhushan argued that a pilot federation has stated that these aeroplanes cannot be trusted and there is a huge risk on people flying in their aircraft.

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The bench adjourned the matter for further hearing after two weeks. On June 12, Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 en route to London's Gatwick airport crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 265 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board.

Among the 241 dead were 169 Indians, 52 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian and 12 crew members.
The lone survivor of the crash was Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national.

(With PTI inputs)