Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/PUNIT PARANJPE
Topics: News, Air India, India, World News
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, Air India, India, World News
A new update on the investigation into the Air India plane crash in June has been released.
In June, Air India Flight 171 had been traveling from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick when it struck a building not long after take-off. In the resulting crash, 241 people on board the plane were killed, while 19 people also died on the ground.
There was only one survivor from the crash, Viswashkumar Ramesh from the UK, who has since described his experience, including how he managed to get out of the wreckage.
Following the incident, an investigation into the crash began, with a preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released one month later; however, this report would prove to be controversial.
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In the report, it was claimed that cockpit switches that controlled fuel had been moved to the 'CUTOFF' position, which, according to the BBC, would have deprived the plane of fuel, causing the thrusters to lose power.
They were then moved back, while an audio recording in the cockpit appears to show one of the pilots asking the other why he 'cut off', to which he replies that he didn't.
This then sparked speculation surrounding the pilots on board, who were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his first officer, Clive Kunder, with former National Transportation Safety Board chairman, Robert Sumwalt, alleging the report showed that 'this was not a problem with the airplane or the engines'.
On November 7, Sumeet's father, Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, called for India's Supreme Court to commission an investigation led by a panel of aviation experts, which was heard today (November 10).
He also asked for an independent investigation to examine the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Mr Sabharwal criticised the AAIB, with the 91-year-old having previously claimed that two AAIB officials had visited and suggested to him that his son had cut fuel to the engine shortly after takeoff.
This accusation has previously been denied by the government, which has called the investigation into the crash 'very thorough' and 'very clean'.
Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi told Mr Sabharwal that the pilot was blameless for the crash, as Kant said: "It’s extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed.
"Nobody can blame him for anything."
Justice Bagch also assured the father that the report does not make any insinuations against his son, adding: "One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other, the other said no.
"There’s no suggestion of fault in that report."
The court also described reports implicating fault on the pilots as 'nasty reporting', as they continued: "We are not bothered by foreign reports. Your remedy should then be before a foreign court. That is nasty reporting.
"No one in India believes it was the pilot's fault."