Air India pilot not blamed in AAIB’s preliminary report on June 12 crash: Centre tells SC

The Air India pilot has not been blamed in the AAIB’s preliminary report into the June 12 plane crash that claimed 260 lives, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) probe team into the plane crash was formed under the international regime and there is a statutory provision for it.

Justice Bagchi said, “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.”

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. He said that a pilot federation has stated that these airplanes cannot be trusted and there is a huge risk on people flying in their aircraft.

Justice Kant said these proceedings should not become a fight between one airline versus another airline, and asked Mehta to file the response to the plea filed by the father of the deceased father. 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.