Submit progress card on Gujarat Air India plane crash probe in 3 weeks: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government to submit within three weeks a progress report on the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's inquiry into the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad in June last year.

As many as 260 people, including 241 passengers on board were killed after the London-bound flight, a Boeing Dreamliner, crashed immediately after it took off.

The apex court also asked the government to provide details of the procedural protocol followed by the bureau in line with international commitments.


Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that the investigation was at its fag end and some parts of the probe needed to be carried out in foreign countries.

In September, the top court had sought the response of the government and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation "for the limited purpose of ensuring a fair, impartial and expeditious investigation by an expert body" into the plane crash.

Safety Matters Foundation, a non-government organisation led by former pilot Amit Singh, had moved the SC seeking a court-monitored independent probe. When counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, told the court that three other Boeing 787 Dreamliners had met with similar accidents and the Centre had yet to respond to the PIL, the apex court asked the senior lawyer not to give credence to unverified media reports.

"Last week, it was said that the Dreamliner from London to Delhi had some problem with the fuel switch. Later, it was said from the official account of the airline that it was perfectly fine. But this incident (the crash), of course, was very unfortunate. Let us be very conservative also on making comments on a particular airline. The Dreamliner was once hailed as the best," the court said.

The bench said it would take a call on a court of inquiry after seeing the result of the AAIB probe.