THE Air India pilot is not to blame for the horrific crash that killed 241, a court has said.
“Nobody can blame him for anything,” Justice Surya Kant said, insisting reports of the pilot being at fault were “nasty”.
His announcement comes after an initial report found that Sumeet Sabharwal, — the 56-year-old veteran at the controls of the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner — flipped the aircraft’s fuel control switches to “cut-off” just moments after liftoff from Ahmedabad in western India.
The crash killed all but one of the 242 people onboard the flight, when the aircraft descended into a medical students’ hostel near Ahmedabad in June.
Reassuring Sumeet’s grieving dad, Judge Kant, at India’s top court, said: “It’s extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed. Nobody can blame him for anything.”
He added there’s “no suggestion of fault” in the first report, just a summary of the conversation between the two pilots.
The judge then slammed claims Sumeet was to blame, dismissing them as “nasty” – and insisted “no one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault”.
Another judge added that the crash should be contextualised as there were widespread safety concerns about Boeing planes at the time.
The allegations, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, were made by US officials who said a black box recording revealed a tense exchange in the cockpit moments before the crash.
Sources familiar with the American investigation said it was Sumeet who reached for the fuel control switches after the Dreamliner climbed off the runway – sealing the plane’s horrendous fate.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal, Sumeet’s 91-year-old dad, told the investigation that his son was a highly skilled pilot who “regularly” passed his aviation exams and accused US officials of being “biased” with their claims”.
He’s called for an “independent” investigation to look into other potential causes of the crash.
In response to the US investigation, Justice Kant said: “We are not bothered by foreign reports”.
The plane was heading to London Gatwick when it crashed just moments after take-off.
Full video of the crash shows the plane heading down the runway before lifting into the air.
After barely 30 seconds the plane appears to dip and goes begins an agonising descent back to the ground.
It then exploded in a fireball as it crashed into the nearby doctors’ hostel.
Who was Sumeet Sabharwal?
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was no novice.
With over 15,000 flying hours — more than 8,000 on the Dreamliner — he had long been considered steady and reliable.
Friends described him as soft-spoken, precise, even minimalist.
“He was a very reserved guy right from the beginning,” said fellow pilot Kapil Kohal.
Known as “Sad Sack” in flight school for his solemn demeanor, Sabharwal lived simply.
Two shirts, two shoes, one bag.
“He was a middle-class boy looking at the sky and saying, ‘I want to be there,’” Kohal said.
But in recent years, Sabharwal had faced personal struggles.
He was reportedly just months from retirement, grieving his mother’s death and caring for his elderly father.
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Some aviation sources told The Telegraph he had taken time off in past years for mental health issues.
Though he passed a Class I medical exam in September 2024, investigators are now combing through his records.