The Air India crash probe has been expanded to include the medical reports of pilots amid growing concern that the investigation was biased in its approach. A preliminary investigation report into the recent accident raised fresh questions this week and prompted a multi-country review of Boeing fuel switches. The London-bound Dreamliner crashed into a medical students’ hostel minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad airport — killing all but one passenger and many others on the ground.
According to several reports, crash investigators are now examining the medical records of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal amid unsubstantiated claims about his mental health. The 56-year-old had been mere moths away from retirement when tragedy struck the Boeing 787-8 flight last month. Hearsay-based claims also suggested that the pilot had considered leaving the airline to look after his elderly father following the death of his mother in 2022.
The Airline Pilots’ Association of India has already rejected the “tone and direction” of the inquiry — contending that it was biased towards pilot errors. ALPA India, which represents Indian pilots at the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations, has rejected any presumption of pilot error and called for a “fair, fact-based inquiry”
‘Gentle, quiet people’
Neighbours recalled Captain Sabharwal and his elderly father with fondness — with one revealing that Sabharwal had been mulling an early retirement. The slain father had lived with his elderly father in Mumbai and reportedly told a neighbour that he would be staying with the elderly man full-time after ‘just one or two more flights’.
“I told him: ‘Your father is too old to be alone’. And he replied: ‘Just one or two more flights… then I’m going to just be with Papa’. Who could have known that would be the last time? Whenever he wasn’t flying, he would walk hand in hand with his father in the evenings. They smiled at everyone, just gentle, quiet people,” a neighbour told The Telegraph.
What has the preliminary report confirmed?
According to the report released last week, the fuel switches to the engines were cut off moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad. This caused both the engines of the plane to shut down in midair and led to the crash. It added that the plane’s engine two fuel cutoff switches flipped almost simultaneously, but did not say how. One pilot could be heard asking the other why he had cut off the fuel as per the cockpit voice recorder from the final moments of the flights.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” read an excerpt from the 15-page preliminary report.
Air India rejects allegations
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said on Monday that the preliminary report into the crash of the London-bound plane found no mechanical or maintenance issues with the aircraft and its engines. An internal memo to airline staff that was accessed by The Associated Press also confirmed that the pilots had undergone all relevant checks before taking the wheel.
“There was no issue with the quality of fuel and no abnormality with the take-off roll. The pilots had passed their mandatory pre-flight breathalyser and there were no observations pertaining to their medical status,” he said in the note.