Supreme Court orders completion of AAIB probe into AI-171 flight crash in three weeks

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) allowed three weeks for the completion of the ongoing investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the Air India Flight 171 crash at the Ahmedabad airport, killing 12 crew members and 229 passengers on June 12 last year.

“There is a lot of anxiety and queries in the minds of pilots, close relatives [of those who died]... We are also eagerly waiting for the findings of the investigation. We also want to see what they have to say,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a Bench, addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government.

The court asked Mr. Mehta to place the AAIB report on record after the completion of the investigation.

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During the hearing, Mr. Mehta said a detailed and international investigation was on, and asked for three weeks more. He said the probe was not meant to point fingers at anyone for the crash, but to unearth the reason which led to the tragedy.

“Nobody wants to put any blame on the pilots. The investigation is on the cause of the accident,” the Solicitor General clarified.

Boeing 787 Dreamliners

At one point, addressing questions raised about the safety of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the CJI asked how many other airlines globally used the aircraft.

On receiving a response that “many airlines do”, Chief Justice Kant remarked that grounding Dreamliners might effectively lead to grounding the airlines serving the country.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for 91-year-old Pushkarraj Sabharwal, along with advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, argued that a separate court of inquiry headed by a retired judge was the law and the norm in the aftermath of a major air accident.

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The CJI responded that the “smallest air accident leads to disastrous consequences”. The Bench stressed that it would wait for the AAIB to come out with its report.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi, on the Bench, reiterated that the purpose of an AAIB inquiry under Section 4C of the Aircraft Act 1934 and the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 was not to assign blame.

Mr. Sankaranarayanan said the investigation report should be submitted in court in a sealed cover.

Mr. Sabharwal, along with the Federation of Indian Pilots, had moved the apex court seeking an independent and judicially-monitored probe into the accident. His petition was triggered by “nasty” reportage about his son and rumours of pilot error. He had argued that the AAIB investigation was flawed.

His petition had followed a preliminary report, published in the media, containing what is believed to be a brief verbal exchange between the two pilots, caught on the flight’s black box.