Meanwhile, on Sept. 22, a Supreme Court bench issued notices to the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the aspect of an independent, fair and expeditious probe of the crash, as it also mentioned that an element of privacy and dignity of families of victims was also involved.
In one of the worst aircraft accidents in India, a total of 260 people, including 241 passengers, died after Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad on June 12. According to the FIP, the circumstances surrounding the AI171 investigation make the constitution of a court of inquiry not merely “expedient”, but an absolute and urgent necessity.
AAIB, in its preliminary report released on July 12, had said the fuel supply to both engines of the plane was cut off within a gap of one second, causing confusion in the cockpit soon after takeoff. “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” it had said.
The Supreme Court, on Sept. 22, termed the selective publication of a preliminary report on the June 12 Air India crash which outlined lapses on the part of pilots and paved way for a “media narrative” as “unfortunate and irresponsible.”
