By Abhijith Ganapavaram
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s civil aviation minister denied on Tuesday there was any “manipulation” in an official investigation into the crash of an Air India Dreamliner in June, after the father of the flight’s captain complained about the actions of investigators.
It was the first official reaction to a complaint by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal sent to a pilots’ union last month in which he said investigators had visited his home and implied that his son had cut the fuel to the plane’s engines after takeoff.
Air India flight 171 crashed moments after it took off from Ahmedabad in June, killing 260 people.
Sabharwal, 91, emailed the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) to complain of “selective” releases of information from the investigators that had led to speculation about the actions of his late son, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal.
MINISTER DEFENDS ‘THOROUGH’ INVESTIGATION PROCESS
“There is no manipulation or there is no dirty business happening in the investigation,” Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told broadcaster India Today.
“It is a very clean and very thorough process that we are following according to the rules that have been set up, so we are going to ensure that commitment is maintained,” he said in an interview, when asked if he had any assurances for Sabharwal.
A preliminary investigation report by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) showed the plane’s fuel engine switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff just after takeoff.
A source briefed on U.S. officials’ early assessment of evidence in July told Reuters the cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots supported the view that Captain Sabharwal had cut the flow of fuel to the engines.
Sabharwal did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. He had earlier said in a letter to FIP that AAIB officials had visited him at home on August 30 “under the pretext of offering condolences”, and implied his son was the one who moved the fuel switches.
“The interaction confirmed his (Sabharwal’s) fear of a deliberate attempt to shift blame onto a deceased pilot,” FIP said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday, adding that the AAIB officials had questioned Sabharwal on his son’s mental state.
Sabharwal wrote a separate letter to the ministry in August, in which he requested India’s government open an additional investigation into the deadly crash. Meanwhile, India’s Supreme Court asked the government to respond to a plea seeking an independent investigation into the crash.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that India has sought more information from Boeing after an emergency power system unexpectedly activated on a separate Air India 787 Dreamliner on Saturday.
(Reporting by Abhijith GanapavaramEditing by Gareth Jones)
