‘Unfortunate’: SC slams reports suggesting ‘pilot error’ led to Air India crash, issues notice on plea seeking independent probe

The Supreme Court Monday issued notice on a plea seeking an independent and expeditious investigation into the June 12, 2025, crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, which killed 260 people.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh also termed as “unfortunate” media reports which indicated that “pilot error” was to blame for the crash, purportedly quoting some preliminary findings by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

The bench issued notice to the Centre, the Director General of AAIB, and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the plea by Safety Matters Foundation, an aviation safety NGO. “Issue notice to the respondents for the limited purpose of ensuring a free, fair, impartial, independent and expeditious investigation by an expert body,” it ordered.

Appearing for the NGO, advocate Prashant Bhushan also sought to make public the details of the flight data recorder, but the court expressed reluctance and stressed the need for maintaining confidentiality till the regular inquiry is taken to its logical conclusion.

The plea by the foundation contended that “the Preliminary Report issued by” the AAIB “is incomplete, selective, and lacking in transparency, thereby undermining the credibility of the investigative process and the trust of the travelling public.”

It said, “The Preliminary Report fails to comply with Rule 2(25) of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017, which states that such a report serves the purpose of disseminating all data obtained during the early stages of the investigation. Instead, the Report contains selective disclosures, such as paraphrased references to cockpit voice recordings without timestamps, full transcripts, or corroborative context.”

“This selective presentation creates a misleading impression and undermines transparency…such selective disclosure of partial information has the effect of shaping a biased public perception, one that tends to attribute the cause of the accident to pilot error while absolving the manufacturer and the airline of potential responsibility,” it added.

The plea alleged that “by releasing incomplete and unverified extracts of the cockpit voice recording, the Respondent has created an information environment that unfairly tilts the narrative in favour of the operator and manufacturer, contrary to the principles of impartiality, transparency, and public accountability that must govern air accident investigations.”