The Supreme Court  expressed concern over the selective leaking of the preliminary inquiry report into the Ahmedabad Air India Flight AI171 crash, noting that it had contributed to a media narrative attributing the incident to pilot error. The top court has sought the response of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to a plea filed by NGO Safety Matters Foundation seeking an independent, fair and expeditious inquiry on the Ahmedabad Air India crash on June 21, that killed 260 people.

A bench comprising of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh stated that the Court will examine the issue once it receives the response from the aforesaid authorities in this matter. “Issue notice to the limited extent of ensuring a free, fair, impartial, independent and expeditious investigation into the issue by an expert body, returnable on so and so date”, the top court noted.

Additionally, the Supreme Court has stressed that confidentiality must be maintained towards the investigation. “Last conclusion regarding the crash must be brought in public domain eventually, but until then, confidentiality is most important, the Court stated.

On media reports that blamed senior pilot, even before the official release of the preliminary report, Justice Kant stated, “Very irresponsible kind of (reporting), confidentiality is the most important thing in these matters,” as reported by Live Law.