AI 171 Crash: Captain Sabharwal’s Father Demands Formal Inquiry, Slams AAIB Report

The 91-year-old father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, one of the pilots of the Air India Boeing 787-8 that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, has urged the central government to launch a formal investigation into the tragedy. He alleged that the preliminary probe report released in July by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), along with selective leaks to the media, has unfairly maligned his son’s reputation and taken a toll on his own health.

Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of the deceased pilot, described the AAIB’s preliminary findings as “deficient, diversionary and discrepant.” He strongly objected to speculation about his son’s mental health and dismissed the pilot suicide theory being circulated in sections of the media.

In a letter to Civil Aviation Secretary Sameer Kumar Sinha and AAIB Director General G.V.G. Yugandhar, Pushkaraj Sabharwal urged the Centre to invoke Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017, to initiate a formal investigation into the June 12 crash. The provision allows the government to order such an inquiry even while an AAIB probe is in progress.

Sabharwal requested that the formal investigation be led by a retired Supreme Court judge and include aviation experts as well as pilot representatives. He contended that the lack of a Rule 12 enquiry, coupled with selective leaks of information, was prejudicial to him and infringed upon his “fundamental rights, including the right to the reputation of my deceased son.”

“The rules clearly state that the purpose of the AAIB investigation and its preliminary report is to outline what happened. However, the report fails to present the bare facts of the crash and instead indulges in insinuations while extending clean chits to the manufacturers,” Pushkaraj Sabharwal wrote in his letter. He described the report as “deficient, diversionary and discrepant,” alleging that it selectively discloses information from the preliminary probe.

“The selective leaks have triggered speculation in both Indian and international media, with innuendos suggesting that Captain Sabharwal was under severe psychological stress and contemplating suicide. Such insinuations have deeply impacted my health and mental well-being, while gravely damaging the reputation of my son,” Pushkaraj Sabharwal wrote. He added that the reputation of Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal was protected as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Dismissing speculation about his son’s mental health, Pushkaraj Sabharwal wrote: “Reports have claimed that Captain Sabharwal’s divorce caused him anxiety and depression, ignoring the fact that he was divorced nearly 15 years ago. Another theory cites his mother’s death as a reason for suicidal tendencies, yet she passed away more than three years ago, after which Captain Sabharwal successfully operated over 100 flights without incident. In more than 25 years of flying, he never faced a single accident or safety lapse.”

The AAIB’s preliminary investigation report, released a month after the crash, concluded that the Air India Boeing 787-8 went down after both engines were starved of fuel. The switches controlling fuel supply reportedly transitioned from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” within a second of each other shortly after take-off. Citing cockpit voice recorder data, the report noted that one pilot questioned the other on why the fuel had been cut off, only to be told in response that he had not done so.

Notably, the AAIB report did not state that the fuel control switches, which regulate fuel flow to the aircraft’s engines—had been physically moved. Instead, it used the term “transitioned” to describe the mode change from RUN to CUTOFF and did not attribute the action to either pilot. However, the selective manner in which the findings were presented led many to believe the report implicitly cast blame on the pilots, particularly Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, despite his long record of experience.

The report also issued no safety recommendations for other operators of the Boeing 787-8 or its GE engines, suggesting investigators did not consider the aircraft or its systems to be at fault. In his letter, Pushkaraj Sabharwal alleged that the preliminary report “appears to have drawn certain conclusions based on external pressure exerted by so-called representatives and technical experts of the manufacturers—Boeing and General Electric (GE).”

He further drew parallels with the two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, where pilots were initially blamed before it was revealed that Boeing had withheld critical information about a software change from airlines and flight crews—a lapse later identified as a key factor in those accidents.

Around the time the Ahmedabad crash’s preliminary report was released, a few US-based publications reported that deliberate action by one of the pilots was the most likely cause of the accident, which claimed 260 lives—241 of the 242 on board and 19 on the ground. While the preliminary findings were made public a month after the June 12 crash, the final investigation report is expected within a year of the incident.

Emails seeking comments from the offices of the Civil Aviation Secretary and the AAIB Director General went unanswered. On July 17, however, the AAIB issued an appeal urging the public and media to “refrain from spreading premature narratives” regarding the ongoing probe.

AAIB Director General G.V.G. Yugandhar noted that sections of the international press were “repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting,” calling such coverage “irresponsible” given that the investigation was still underway. He clarified that the preliminary report was only intended to outline what happened in the crash, and that it was too early to draw definitive conclusions.

In his letter, Pushkaraj Sabharwal urged the government and the AAIB to issue a formal clarification stating that the purpose of the preliminary investigation was not to assign blame but to help prevent future air accidents and incidents. He further requested the agencies to specify that the report made no reference to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and that media commentary linking his son to the crash was purely speculative.

Also Read: NIA Joins Air India Crash Probe; AAIB to Examine Technical, Operational Lapses