Air India plane crash: Pilots’ body serves legal notice over summons to deceased captain Sumeet Sabharwal’s nephew

NEW DELHI: Federation of Indian Pilots has served a legal notice on Aircraft Accident Investigation Board over summoning a nephew of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, pilotin-command of Air India Flight 171 that crashed seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on June 12 last year, killing 260 people, including the crew.The nephew, also an Air India pilot, had no role in AI 171 and lacks any factual, technical or operational knowledge of crash, FIP said. The board appears to be calling relatives to gather personal details about deceased captain, sources said.The legal notice says Air India informed the nephew of the summons without disclosing “statutory provision, purpose or relevance”, or “capacity in which presence was required”. It says the nephew had no association with the aircraft, flight planning, dispatch, operation, maintenance, certification, airworthiness clearance or crew composition, and was not present at the crash site.“The summoning of the nephew of the deceased pilot and his relatives, irrespective of lack of nexus with the case, reinforces apprehension that such actions are not rooted in any lawful investigative necessity,” the notice says.