Overview
- Captain Varun Anand, a serving Air India pilot and nephew of the late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, was asked to appear on January 15 after an initial date of January 19 was brought forward.
- The Federation of Indian Pilots says the notice failed to state the statutory basis or relevance of his appearance and calls the move harassment in a formal legal notice to the AAIB.
- Anand has agreed to cooperate and will join the proceedings by video conference, according to the pilots’ body.
- The AAIB has not commented publicly, and its July 12 preliminary report indicating an interruption of fuel supply to both engines and raising human‑error questions remains contested as the final report is pending.
- Context to the probe includes DGCA‑ordered checks on Air India’s 787 fleet, Tata Group’s announced Rs 1.25 crore compensation for families, and a writ petition reportedly filed in the Supreme Court by the late captain’s father challenging the inquiry’s fairness.