India’s Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to respond to a petition seeking an independent investigation into the June 12 Air India crash in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people.
The petition, filed by NGO Safety Matters Foundation, is the court’s first examination of the official inquiry being conducted by Indian authorities. The NGO argued that the presence of serving Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officers on the probe panel posed a “serious conflict of interest,” since the regulator’s own oversight actions were under scrutiny.
The crash of the Air India-operated Boeing 787 killed all but one of the 242 people on board, along with 19 people on the ground, after the aircraft lost thrust shortly after takeoff. A preliminary government report pointed to pilot confusion after engine fuel switches flipped from “run” to “cutoff,” effectively ruling out manufacturing defects.
However, families of victims and safety advocates have criticised the investigation for focusing too heavily on pilot error. The court has asked the government to file its response before deciding on whether to order a fair, impartial, and expeditious independent inquiry.