SC dismisses PIL seeking court-monitored probe into Mirage crash

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava seeking a court-monitored inquiry into Mirage aircraft crash in Bengaluru which claimed the lives of two pilots.

"We dismiss the petition. The petition has no merit," said an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.

"We are using mirage of 3 or 3.5 generation. It's bound to crash. Is it the Supreme Court's job to order judicial inquiry into mirage crash?" CJI Gogoi asked and dismissed the PIL.

Srivastava had moved the apex court seeking a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps and effective measures (including proper maintenance of aircraft) to ensure that unfortunate incidents like the Mirage crash don't happen in future.

Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots Squadron Leaders Siddhartha Negi and Samir Abrol lost their lives when Mirage 2000 crashed at the HAL airport earlier this month after the aircraft allegedly experienced a technical snag immediately after takeoff.

IAF sources said India is sending to France the black box of the ill-fated aircraft to ascertain the reasons for the mishap.