Air India flight crash latest updates: India orders airlines to check Boeing fuel switches after report on Ahmedabad tragedy – UK Times

1. How did both engine fuel control switches – designed with locking mechanisms to prevent accidental movement – get flipped to the ‘cutoff’ position within seconds of takeoff?
2. Could a mechanical malfunction override the spring-loaded safety design, or was it human error?
3. Why were the switches later found back in the ‘run’ position at the crash site – were the pilots trying to recover engine power too late?
4. What exactly happened in the cockpit during those final 32 seconds, and why did one pilot ask the other, “Why did you cut it off?”
5. Is there evidence of confusion, miscommunication, or a systems failure?
6. Can such a catastrophic loss of thrust occur again, despite multiple safety barriers meant to prevent it?

India’s aviation regulator has ordered airlines to inspect fuel switch locks on Boeing aircraft after a report on the Air India Flight 171 crash showed both engines lost fuel seconds after takeoff.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued the order after several Indian and foreign airlines began inspecting the fuel switch locking mechanisms on their own.

The prelim report into the Air India flight 171 has triggered debate over pilot error versus mechanical failure.

While Air India urged caution, pilot unions condemned speculation, especially around suicide. A 2018 FAA advisory had flagged fuel switch lock issues on some Boeing models.

The cockpit voice recorder from Air India Flight 171 has shed light on the tense final moments before the crash, with one pilot reportedly asking the other, “Why did you cut it off?” – a reference to the fuel control switches that were somehow flipped to the “cut-off” position just after takeoff, causing both engines to lose power.

The preliminary report stops short of assigning blame, but the exchange has reopened the debate around pilot error and mechanical fault.

Even the insinuation that a pilot’s error could be behind the crash has angered the community. An Indian pilots’ association rejected the presumption of pilot error in the Ahmedabad crash.

The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA-India), which represents Indian pilots at the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations, called for “fair, fact-based inquiry.”

“The pilots body must now be made part of the probe, at least as observers,” ALPA India president Sam Thomas said on Sunday.

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal:

Sabharwal, 56, started his aviation career in the early 1990s and logged more than 15,000 hours of flying experience. Joining Air India in 1994, he went on to become “line training captain”, a role to train and guide co-pilots during live flights. He had obtained clearances to fly as pilot-in-command on several aircraft, including the Boeing 787 and 777 and the Airbus A310.

First officer Clive Kunder:

Unlike Captain Sabharwal, first officer Cliver Kunder, 32, was at the beginning of a promising aviation career, with over 3,400 hours of flight time to his name.

Kunder grew up in Mumbai and was living alone in the Goregaon area. According to Indian media reports citing relatives, he had dreamt of flying since childhood. He began his journey as a pilot in 2012 and joined Air India in 2017.

Read more about them here:

The probe into last month’s crash of an Air India plane in Ahmedabad is far from over and it is unwise to jump to any premature conclusions, airline CEO Campbell Wilson said in an internal memo on Monday after the release of a preliminary report by investigators.

The memo, reviewed by Reuters, comes after the report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before the crash of the Boeing Dreamliner that killed 260 people. It said the plane’s engine fuel cutoff switches flipped almost simultaneously and starved the engines of fuel.

“The release of the preliminary report marked the point at which we, along with the world, began receiving additional details about what took place. Unsurprisingly, it provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions.” the memo said.

Mr Wilson added: “The preliminary report identified no cause nor made any recommendations, so I urge everyone to avoid drawing premature conclusions as the investigation is far from over.”

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London from the Indian city of Ahmedabad began to lose thrust and sink shortly after takeoff, according to the report released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

The memo said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.

The preliminary report, released on Saturday, suggested no immediate action for Boeing or GE, whose engines were fitted on to the aircraft.

The findings have left some families of victims questioning how the tragedy took place, and if it was avoidable.

Badasab Syed, 59, who lost his brother, 49-year-old IT professional Inayat Syed, his sister-in-law, and their two children in the crash, said he has just been left with more questions.

He told the BBC: “The report mentions the pilots discussing who turned off fuel and a possible issue with the fuel control switch. We don’t know what that means? Was it avoidable?”

Ayushi Christian, who married Lawrence Christian in 2023 before migrating to the UK, said her husband was in India because he had been performing the last rites of his father. He was on the AI 171 flight to return home to the UK.

Following the release of an initial report into the incident, Ms Christian told the BBC: “It has been one month since the crash, but no action has been taken by the government so far. [The] preliminary investigation report has come out today. Action should be taken against those responsible for the incident.”

The fuel switches that were cut off before the Air India plane crash are the kind used on every flight, and designed so that this cannot easily “accidentally” happen, an aviation expert has said.

The fuel switches are used at the end of every flight and in emergency scenarios such as a fire, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, Professor Graham Braithwaite said, adding that pilots would generally run through a checklist before turning them off.

He said: “For obvious reasons, the two switches are a distance apart, so not a huge distance, but enough that you couldn’t accidentally switch two when you’re trying to switch one.

“So it’s not like the lights in your house, where they’re right next to each other, so there is some space between them.

“They’re in that centre console, so that’s in between the two pilots, so they can each reach them with the same ease.”

South Korea is preparing to order all airlines in the country that operate Boeing jets to examine fuel switches in the focus of an investigation of a deadly Air India crash that killed 260 people.

Fuel switch locks have come under scrutiny after a mention of a 2018 advisory from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a preliminary report into last month’s crash of Air India’s Boeing 787-8 jet.

A spokesperson for the South Korean transport ministry said the checks were in line with a 2018 advisory from the FAA, but did not give a timeline for inspections.

Boeing referred Reuters’ questions to the FAA, which was not immediately available to comment outside regular hours.