US officials fear Indian authorities are covering up aspects of the Air India crash that killed 260 people. Photo / Getty Images
US officials fear Indian authorities are covering up aspects of the Air India crash that killed 260 people. Photo / Getty Images
US officials fear Indian authorities are trying to cover up the deadly Air India plane crash, which killed 260 people.
Just one passenger survived when Flight 171 crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India in June, killing 241 travellers and crew, along with 19 people on theground.
US investigators believe the evidence points to Sumeet Sabharwal, the flight’s captain, deliberately crashing the plane, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Data downloaded from the Boeing Dreamliner’s black box allegedly shows someone inside the cockpit moved the switches to cut off the engine’s fuel supply.
The captain did not then attempt to raise the nose of the aircraft before the crash, the evidence reportedly shows.
Some US officials fear the Indian Government will seek to obstruct the findings and instead blame mechanical faults with the plane.
However, Indian observers believe the US is overlooking flaws in American-made planes, although there have been no fatal crashes involving a Boeing Dreamliner.
India’s top court this month said Sabharwal was not to blame for the disaster.
Evidence suggests Captain Sumeet Sabharwal deliberately crashed the plane, but India's top court cleared him. Photo / Supplied
Sabharwal’s father has said his son has been the target of a “character assassination” despite his “unblemished 30-year career” as a pilot.
The joint investigation between India and the US, which is involved because the Boeing was manufactured in the US and approved by American safety regulators, has been marred by mutual suspicion between officials.
GVG Yugandhar, who leads India’s aircraft accident investigation bureau, is said to have told US officials India was “not a third-world country” and “can do anything you all can do”.
Indian authorities are accused of failing to prioritise gathering and analysing data from the black box, although this has been disputed by a figure familiar with India’s investigation process.
American investigators were banned from taking photos of the wreckage, some of which was moved before they could examine it, sources said.
Two American black-box specialists who landed in New Delhi in June were warned not to accompany Indian authorities to a remote laboratory to analyse flight data and voice recorders from the cockpit.
Tensions between US and Indian investigators have marred the joint investigation into the crash. Photo / Getty Images
Jennifer Homendy, the chairwoman of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), is said to have been worried about the safety of US personnel and equipment because of the risk of terrorism or military conflict in the region.
Indian officials had pushed to analyse the black box in the small town of Korwa, which they deemed better-equipped and located away from media attention.
Homendy argued that authorities should download data from either their laboratory in New Delhi or work in the NTSB’s Washington facilities.
In the end, Indian authorities agreed to analyse the data from the New Delhi site after the US threatened to pull its support from the investigation.
Homendy’s calls to her counterpart, Yugandhar, for updates are said to have gone unanswered.
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