Air India 171 Crash Probe: AAIB Says No Authorisation Issued For Visit To Capt Sumeet Sabharwal's Father, RTI Reveals

Chennai: In the Air India 171 crash investigation, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) now says that it did not authorise any visit to the late Capt Sumeet Sabharwal’s 92-yearold father Pushkaraj Sabharwal on August 30, 2025.

In a reply to an RTI petition, AAIB said no order exists authorising officials to visit the home of the late Air India pilot, despite previously documented accounts of investigators travelling to the family’s residence with Air India staff and discussing a fuel-cutoff theory months before the probe was completed.

The disclosure is contained in a March 18, 2026 RTI response issued by AAIB to Mumbaibased advocate Pradeep Phoolchand Yadav — when the agency was asked to provide a copy of any order issued by AAIB or the Ministry of Civil Aviation directing two officials to visit Capt Sabharwal's residence on August 30, 2025.

Air India pilots say, the response raises questions for India’s deadliest aviation-crash probe. “If no order exists, who authorised the visit? In what capacity were the officials acting? And why were theories about the cause of the crash being discussed with a bereaved parent months before the investigation was completed?” asks Capt S Kumar. The visit has been documented in earlier reporting by The Free Press Journal. According to Pushkaraj Sabharwal, a retired DGCA deupty director, two individuals identifying themselves as part of the investigation effort arrived at his residence along with Air India personnel from admin and dispatch, who had come to give their condolences.

These individuals gave their visiting cards and identified themselves as Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Dr Deepak Gaur one Dr Sugandha. They asked the Air India employees to leave and wait downstairs so that they could have a private word with Capt Sumeet's father.

Most of the accusations were made by Gaur, while the female official kept nodding assent. Gaur’s public profiles describe him variously as a retired Air Vice Marshal, consultant aerospace medicine, former director, medical services with the Government of India, and a former DGCA medical assessor. While he claimed to Air India officials present to be the current “director, medical Services, Government of India,” his LinkedIn profile lists his government service as ending in October 2022.

What followed, according to Pushkaraj Sabharwal, was not a condolence call.

"They said they had come to understand why he did it," he told in an interview to Free Press Journal.

"Do what? Do his duty right?" he had responded.

"They said, 'We have come to know he has cut off the fuel cutoff switches.'"

Sabharwal challenged the claim, asking whether they had been present in the cockpit. When they said they had proof from the cockpit voice recorder, he asked whether they had personally heard the recording. They admitted they had not.

"Exactly. And you won't be allowed to hear the CVR unless you are investigating the case," Sabharwal said he told them. "You have come to give your condolence. You've given it. Now I should ask you to leave."

The significance of AAIB's latest RTI response is that it effectively distances the agency from the visit itself. By stating that no order exists in its records, AAIB appears unable or unwilling to identify what official authority, if any, was used to conduct the meeting.

Neither AAIB nor Deepak Guar responded to requests for comments.

The RTI response contains other notable refusals.

Yadav had also sought details of the educational qualifications, work experience, technical backgrounds and prior accidentinvestigation experience of members of the AI171 investigation team. AAIB declined to answer, saying those details would come under "personal information."

The agency similarly refused to disclose the names and qualifications of subjectmatter experts empanelled as advisers to the investigation, again citing privacy exemptions.

The disclosures have angered sections of the pilot community.

Capt Sam Thomas, President of ALPA India, described the visit to Pushkaraj Sabharwal's residence as an attempt to bolster a pilot-error narrative.

"This RTI petition shows it was an unauthorised visit to harass a grieving father. It is a pure bid to sabotage an onoging investigation," he said. " Visiting the home of a grieving father and discussing allegations against a deceased pilot is wholly inappropriate. If no official authorisation existed for the visit, the matter warrants judicial scrutiny," he added.

For critics of the probe, the RTI response creates a contradiction that AAIB will now have to explain. Either officials connected to the investigation visited the home of a grieving father and discussed evidence in an ongoing inquiry, or the agency's records fail to account for a visit that multiple witnesses say occurred.