Supreme Court Criticizes preliminary Air India Crash report, calls Pilots’ Error suggestion ‘Unfortunate’

Today (September 22, 2025), the Supreme Court (SC) bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh expressed a serious concern over the preliminary report given by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) regarding the Aircraft crash that happened on June 12th in India. The report suggested the pilot's error as also a contributing factor. The two-judge bench issued a notice to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)  seeking an independent and fair inquiry. The petition was filed by an Aviation safety NGO, "Safety Matters Foundation,” stating that the members of the inquiry board were prematurely blaming the pilots, excluding the factors of operational failure and other technical issues in the electrical system of the Boeing 787-8  Aircraft. 

During the proceedings, Advocate Prashanth Bhushan, who represents the NGO (petitioners), submitted, “Prior to the report being given to the government, The Wall Street Journal published an article that we have come to know from our source that this report is going to blame pilots... some leakage happened. Everybody went on, and said this was a pilot error... They were very experienced pilots. The story that was being given was that the pilots deliberately shut off fuel supply to the engines.” To this, the court stated that “It is unfortunate that piecemeal information from the preliminary report is being relied upon to attribute fault,” and highlighted that the preliminary findings are a crucial part of the investigation, and public disclosure of information might damage the investigation process. 

Advocate Prashanth Bhushan, who represents the NGO, has pleaded for Flight Data Records (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Records to be released so that the investigation would be held transparently. The Court has asked the authorities to respond within 2 weeks, keeping in mind the accountability and aviation safety. The Air India crash remains under investigation, and the intervention of the Supreme Court aims to ensure that the investigation goes on with integrity and impartiality without premature conclusions.