New Delhi, 22 Sept

The Supreme Court on Monday said certain aspects of the AAIB preliminary report on the 12 June Air India crash indicating lapses on the part of pilots were "irresponsible", and issued notices to the Centre and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on a plea seeking an independent, fair and expeditious probe.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh took note of certain aspects of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) preliminary report issued on 12 July.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO ‘Safety Matters Foundation’, alleged that in the probe panel constituted after the crash, three members were from the aviation regulator and there may be an issue of conflict of interest involved.

He sought release of the information from the flight data recorder of the airplane that would clear the air over the cause of the accident.

The bench, which batted for the final report on the crash, said there is an issue of confidentiality and aspects of privacy and dignity involved in the matter.

While cautioning that the release of particular kinds of information may be exploited by rival airlines, the bench said that it is only issuing notice on the limited aspect of free, fair, independent and expeditious investigation of the crash.

The plea has been filed by an aviation safety NGO led by Captain Amit Singh (FRAeS), alleging that the official probe violates citizens' fundamental rights to life, equality and access to truthful information.

The plea says the AAIB issued its preliminary report on 12 July, attributing the accident to "fuel cutoff switches" being moved from "run" to "cutoff", effectively suggesting a pilot error.

It alleges that the report withholds critical information, including the full Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) output, complete Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) transcripts with time stamps and Electronic Aircraft Fault Recording (EAFR) data.

According to the plea, these are indispensable for a transparent and objective understanding of the disaster.

On 12 June, Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 en route to London's Gatwick airport crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 265 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board.

Among the 241 dead were 169 Indians, 52 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian and 12 crew members.

The lone survivor of the crash was Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national.