New Delhi: Almost a year after the Air India flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad that killed 280 people onboard, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has told the Supreme Court that the draft final report of the probe is expected to be ready in October this year. The AAIB, in a detailed affidavit filed before the top court, said there is an “absolute statutory prohibition” on disclosing cockpit voice recordings and airborne image recordings to any external committee or the public.
The AAIB also stated that sharing such material would violate Rule 17(1) and Rule 17(5) read with Schedule C of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2025. AAIB’s affidavit came in response to a petition filed by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal (father of the late Air India pilot Commander Sumeet Sabharwal) seeking a court-monitored independent probe into the Air India crash.
The Director General, AAIB, in a counter affidavit, said, “Rule 17(5) specifically and separately provides that the audio content of cockpit voice recordings as well as image and audio content of airborne image recordings shall not be disclosed to the public.”
“This is an absolute statutory prohibition. Prayer (ii) of the writ petition, which seeks direction to furnish cockpit voice recordings and related material to an external committee, is directly inconsistent with the mandatory protections under Rule 17(1) and Rule 17(5) read with Schedule C of the Rules, 2025,” it added.
The AAIB also submitted that a serious accident involving an international flight is not a matter purely of domestic inquiry but one of international inquiry governed by the Chicago Convention and Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s rules. Annex 13 prescribes the standard operating procedure to conduct an aircraft accident investigation.
“Article 26 obligates the State in which the accident occurs to institute an inquiry into the circumstances of the accident, while Annex 13 read with Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2025, expressly contemplates the participation of the State of Registry, State of Operator, State of Design, and State of Manufacture, each of whom possesses defined rights and responsibilities in the investigative process through accredited representatives and technical participation.
“Thus, the inquiry is not confined to an internal municipal exercise, but assumes the character of an internationally structured, treaty-governed investigation undertaken by the State of Occurrence in coordination with all concerned States having a legally recognised nexus to the aircraft, operator, design, or manufacture,” the AAIB said in the affidavit.
The AAIB also told the top court that it also could not share a statement of people taken from authorities, communication between people involved in the operation of aircraft, or medical or private info regarding persons involved in accident:
The affidavit said that the Rules, 2025, Aircraft (Investigations of Accidents and Investigations) Rules, 2025, contain critical and mandatory safeguards relating to the confidentiality and integrity of investigative material.
“All statements taken from persons by the investigation authorities in the course of their investigation; all communications between persons having been involved in the operation of the aircraft…. cockpit voice recording and transcripts from such recordings… cockpit airborne image recordings and any part or transcripts from such recordings,” said the affidavit. It furter added that the probe into the crash s governed by a well-settled regime in India, as well as by internationally accepted practices in the case of an air crash investigation.
The June 2025 plane crash claimed 260 lives — 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground.
The top court had earlier told the 91-year-old father of pilot Sumeet Sabharwal, who died in the plane crash, that his son is not to be blamed for the accident and that he should not carry the burden on himself.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots moved the Supreme Court for a court-monitored inquiry headed by a former Supreme Court judge into the plane crash.