SC seeks status report on Ahmedabad air crash inquiry within 3 weeks

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted three weeksrsquo time to the Centre to place on record the status of the probe into the Ahmedabad air crash that claimed 260 livesA bench of Chief Justice of India CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing pleas including one filed by the father of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal the PilotinCommand of Air India flight AI171 that crashed June on 12 2025 seeking an independent courtmonitored investigation into the tragedyDuring the hearing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre and Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA submitted that the inquiry by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau AAIB was in its final stagesWe are at the fag end of the enquiry and the report will soon be prepared the Centrersquos secondhighest law officer told the apex court adding that certain aircraft components had been sent to foreign jurisdictions for specialised testingSince victims of multiple nationalities were involved SG Mehta said that international protocols were being followed in the inquiry TTaking note of the submission the CJIled Bench granted three weeks to the Centre to complete the exercise and directed that the report be filed in a sealed cover along with an affidavit detailing the procedural protocol followed so farWhat is the procedural protocol followed Tell us in three weeks the top court said also asking for a progress report to be placed on record on the next date of hearingAppearing for NGO Safety Matters Foundation advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that pilot associations had flagged concerns regarding the safety of Boeing 787 aircraft and had sought that such planes be grounded pending a thorough examinationThe entire pilotsrsquo association is saying there is a problem in the Boeing 787 aircraft which needs to be grounded he contended adding that neither the government nor the AAIB had responded to the representations raising these issuesAppearing for Captain Sabharwalrsquos father senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan reiterated the plea for a courtmonitored investigation alleging that in previous instances involving aircraft crashes abroad initial findings had attributed blame to pilots only for subsequent inquiries to reveal technical defectsHe referred to past Boeing 737 crashes where according to him pilots were initially faulted before US regulators found defects in the aircraft contending that crucial documents in those cases were not immediately made publicObserving that the tragedy was very unfortunate the bench cautioned against making sweeping remarks against any particular aircraft model or airline without conclusive findingsLet us be very careful while making remarks against any particular brand of aircraft Dreamliners were once considered the best the apex court remarkedReferring to recent media reports about an alleged fuel switch issue in another Dreamliner flight the bench said that initial claims were later clarified by official sources Last week it was said that a Dreamliner from London to Delhi had some problem with the fuel switch Later it was said from the official account that it was perfectly fine But this incident of course was very unfortunate Let us be very conservative while making comments on a particular airline it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever