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Father of Air India crash pilot seeks independent probe
Father of deceased Air India pilot demands Supreme Court-led probe, alleging official crash inquiry unfairly targeted flight crew.
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AFP - Thu, 16, Oct 2025
- 14:11 EDT
- 16
FILE PHOTO: Members of Indian Army's engineering arm prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 14, 2025. / REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
The father of one of the pilots of June's deadly Air India crash has asked India's top court for an independent investigation, saying the official probe unfairly blamed the crew.
A total of 241 people on board the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner were killed when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India on June 12. Another 19 people were killed on the ground.
A preliminary investigation report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said fuel to the jet's engines was cut off moments before impact.
Also Read: India watchdog asks Air India to inspect emergency power system on some 787 jets
Pushkaraj Sabharwal, 91, the father of deceased pilot Sumeet Sabharwal, claimed in his petition that the preliminary AAIB investigation was "profoundly flawed."
The AAIB report in July did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the disaster but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he had cut off fuel and that the second pilot responded that he had not.
The investigation appears to "predominantly focus on the deceased pilots, who are no longer able to defend themselves, while failing to examine or eliminate other more plausible technical and procedural causes of the crash," the petition read.
Sabharwal's petition was filed on Oct. 9 and seen by AFP on Oct. 16. It was unclear when the court would respond.
Two major Indian commercial pilots' associations have already rejected claims that human error had caused the crash.
The Airline Pilots' Association of India has accused the AAIB of "secrecy" surrounding the investigation.
Indian authorities have rejected suggestions of any manipulation in the investigation, which is yet to submit its final report.
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