Pushkar Raj Sabharwal's comments to the BBC come months after he rejected some media reports that suggested investigators were shifting focus to his son, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the senior pilot in the cockpit. "He is no more, but I have to protect his reputation", he said. On 12 June 2025, a London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India, killing at least 260 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board. The cause of the crash remains unknown. A preliminary report released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in July last year found that the fuel control switches for both engines had moved from the "run" to the "cut-off" position shortly after take-off, depriving the engines of fuel. Audio recordings from the cockpit captured one pilot asking the other why he had "cut-off" and the other replying that he had not. Investigators did not identify which pilot made either statement.

At the time of take-off, co-pilot Clive Kunder was flying the aircraft while Capt Sabharwal was monitoring. Investigators have not linked either pilot to the conversation cited in the report, nor found that any action was intentional. Days after the release of the preliminary report last year, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that new details in the investigation were shifting attention towards the senior pilot in the cockpit - Capt Sabharwal. "A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight" that crashed last year supports the view that the "captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines", the Reuters report said, citing unnamed sources. The media reports prompted a strong backlash from pilots' associations in India, which criticised the coverage and rejected suggestions that the senior pilot had caused the crash. (BBC)