'Nasty reporting only to blame India’: Supreme Court on Wall Street Journal report blaming Mumbai pilot for Air India plane crash

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday came out strongly in defence of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal — the pilot who died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad — after his 91-year-old father sought a fair probe, telling him not to carry the burden of guilt and remarking that “it was nasty reporting only to blame India.

” A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the plea filed by the pilot’s father, Pushkaraj Sabharwal. “You should not carry burden on yourself. The pilot is not to be blamed for the plane crash. It was an accident. There is no insinuation against him even in the preliminary report,” the bench told him.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the pilot's father, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, said there was a news article in US publication Wall Street Journal with regard to the pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal."It was nasty reporting only to blame India," the bench responded.Reading from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board’s (AAIB) preliminary report dated July 12, the bench observed that nowhere was the pilot held responsible — the report only documented the conversation between the two pilots before the crash. “The scope of the AAIB investigation is not to blame but to suggest preventive measures to avoid future tragedies.

If necessary, we will clarify that the pilot cannot be blamed,” the bench said. The matter will now be heard on November 10, along with other petitions concerning the June 12 crash that killed 260 people — including 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground — after the London-bound aircraft went down moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad.Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a senior Air India pilot with nearly three decades of flying experience, was among those killed when the London-bound flight crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad.

Hours before the tragedy, Sabharwal had called his family from the airport, assuring them he would speak again after landing in London. That call never came. According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Captain Sabharwal had logged over 8,200 hours in the cockpit. Colleagues, however, believe his actual flying experience was much higher, noting that DGCA’s newer digital system may not have captured his full career record.

“He was a quiet, diligent man,” said a fellow pilot. “He flew Airbus A310s, Boeing 777s, and the Dreamliner. He always kept his head down and did his work.” A resident of Jal Vayu Vihar in Powai, Mumbai, Captain Sabharwal had recently told his 82-year-old father — a former DGCA official — that he would soon take time off to spend with him. That visit will now never happen. Sabharwal was one of nine Mumbai-based crew members on board the ill-fated flight.

Families who had been waiting for messages from Heathrow were instead confronted with the devastating news of the crash. On Friday, authorised representatives from a medical laboratory visited the Sabharwal residence in Powai to collect DNA samples for identification. His 82-year-old father and sister, who has travelled from Delhi, are said to be holding up stoically amid the loss.