Air India Plane Crash | Supreme Court Rejects Engineer's PIL Seeking Details On Fuel Cut-Off In AAIB Preliminary Report

The Supreme Court today rejected a petition seeking “reading down” of the preliminary investigation report on the Air India plane crash that took place in Ahmedabad on June 12 last year, claiming 270 lives.The petitioner prayed for a reading down of the report to the extent it excluded a complete sequence of events with a time chart. He also sought modification of the AAIB report to include the time chart of flameout and switches transition from cut-off to run, whether mechanical or manual, with the time chart. However, the Court rejected his plea.A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi heard the matter.At the outset of the hearing, before the petitioner's counsel made any effective submission, the CJI rapped the petitioner for filing the petition."What is the deep-rooted agenda (behind this petition)? The people who unfortunately lost their lives, their families are not coming. Those who are directly having something [to do], they are not coming before any forum...No other work, you start filing PIL. As if we don't understand what is the motive", the CJI posed to the petitioner's counsel.The counsel attempted to explain that there was no motive attached, but rather, the petitioner's concern was regarding public safety. However, the bench was not convinced to entertain the petition. Before parting, the counsel requested the bench to add that the respondent (AAIB) may consider the petitioner's representation, but the CJI declined.Briefly put, the report in question has been prepared by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). 270 onboard died after Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025.In its preliminary report on the crash, AAIB said that fuel supply to both engines of the plane was cut off within a gap of one second.The plea filed by Suresh Chand Shrivastva, an engineer, sought complete information about the time of transition of cut off switches from run to cut off and exact time of flame out of the engines. He believed that it was highly probable that the cause of the failure of engines was surge which can be confirmed by flame out times of engines and transition of each flame switch to cut off positions.In February, the Delhi High Court had rejected a similar plea filed by the petitioner, saying that the report prepared by an investigating agency could not be read down by the judiciary as it was not an expert in the area. Assailing this order, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court.Case Title: SURESH CHAND SHRIVASTVA Versus AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BUREAU (AAIB), SLP(C) No. 11209/2026

Air India Plane Crash | Supreme Court Rejects Engineer's PIL Seeking Details On Fuel Cut-Off In AAIB Preliminary Report

Debby Jain

CJI Surya Kant orally noted that family members of persons who lost their lives in the tragic incident are not before any forum.

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