Air India Crash Probe: Supreme Court Calls ‘Fuel Cut-Off’ Mention Unfortunate, Issues Notice to Centre

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre, others on a PIL seeking an independent, fair and expeditious probe into the June 12 Air India crash. The Supreme Court considered certain aspects

of the AAIB preliminary report indicating lapses on part of pilots; and termed it 'irresponsible'. The Supreme Court was hearing a PIL seeking an independent court-monitored probe into the crash of Air India flight AI171. The plea has been filed by "Constitution by Safety Matters Foundation", 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 and is "The plea says the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) issued its preliminary report on July 12, 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.(This is a breaking copy. More details are awaited)