---
title: "India's top court says Air India crash report does not insinuate anything against pilot"
description: "India's top court said on Friday that a preliminary report on an Air India crash that killed 260 people in June does not insinuate anything against the captain, but it will hear a plea from the pilot's father on November 10 for an independent probe."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-11-07-indias-top-court-says-air-india-crash-report-does-not-insinuate-anything-against-pilot/"
published: "2025-11-07T10:14:10"
updated: "2025-11-07T10:14:11"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 121
---

# India's top court says Air India crash report does not insinuate anything against pilot

> India's top court said on Friday that a preliminary report on an Air India crash that killed 260 people in June does not insinuate anything against the captain, but it will hear a plea from the pilot's father on November 10 for an independent probe.

By Reuters · Published 7 November 2025, 12:14 SAST · Updated 7 November 2025, 12:14 SAST

## Key points
- In a plot twist worthy of a Bollywood thriller, 91-year-old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal is calling for a panel of aviation sleuths to investigate his son’s tragic plane crash, after government officials suggested the pilot might have pulled a fuel-cutting stunt just post-takeoff—something the authorities vehemently deny while insisting their investigation is as clean as a freshly polished cockpit.
- 91-year-old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal calls for an expert panel investigation into his son’s fatal plane crash.
- Sabharwal alleges that officials suggested pilot Sumeet Sabharwal intentionally cut the engine fuel.
- The government defends its investigation, labeling it as "very clean" and "very thorough."
- An interim report revealed that fuel switches flipped to cutoff shortly after takeoff, raising further questions.

## Content

The plea by 91-year-old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal for an investigation by a panel of aviation experts, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, came weeks after he criticised the government investigation.

He said two officials from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau who visited him had implied that his son, pilot Sumeet Sabharwal, cut the fuel to the plane’s engine after take-off.

The government has denied such accusations, calling the investigation "very clean" and "very thorough".

India's air accidents investigation body published an interim report earlier this year saying the plane's fuel engine switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff just after takeoff.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in Delhi; Writing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Michael Perry)