Pilot confusion over fuel cutoff cited in Air India crash report
According to investigators, the Boeing 787 crashed shortly after takeoff, soon after the engine fuel cutoff switches were moved from the "run" position to the "cutoff" position, effectively stopping the flow of fuel to both engines.
The report also said that the pilots can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder, with one asking the other why he moved the switches to the cutoff position, and the other responding that he did not do so. The report did not specify how the switches were moved.
Both switches were subsequently returned to the "run" position, and the engines were beginning their reignition process about 10 seconds before the pilots called out mayday and the crash occurred.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
3 hours ago
Bald eagle's new status as the official US bird brings pride and hope to many Native Americans
PRAIRIE ISLAND INDIAN COMMUNITY, Minn. -- Some Native Americans traditionally bestow bald eagle feathers at ceremonies to mark achievements, such as graduations, and as a form of reverence for the bird they hold sacred as a messenger to the Creator. This year, many are doing so with elevated pride and hope. The bald eagle is now the official bird of the United States, nearly 250 years after it was first used as a symbol of the newly founded nation that's deeply polarized politically today. 'The eagle is finally getting the respect it deserves. Maybe when the nation looks at the eagle that way, maybe there will be less division,' said Jim Thunder Hawk. He's the Dakota culture and language manager for the Prairie Island Indian Community, a small Mdewakanton Sioux band on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. This wide, unruffled stretch of water framed by wooded bluffs is prime bald eagle territory. The size of Minnesota's population of the majestic, white-head-and-tail birds that are exclusive to North America is second only to that of Alaska. The legislation that made the eagle official came from members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation. The federal act recognizes the eagles' centrality in most Indigenous peoples' 'spiritual lives and sacred belief systems,' and a replica of it is on display at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, 40 miles (65 kilometers) downriver from the Prairie Island community, which partners with the center in eagle care. 'If you grew up in the United States, eagles were a part of your everyday life,' said Tiffany Ploehn, who as the center's avian care director supervises its four resident bald eagles. 'Everyone has some sort of connection.' A bald eagle, its wings and talons spread wide, has graced the Great Seal of the United States since 1782, and appears on passport covers, the $1 bill, military insignia, and myriad different images in pop culture. But a prolific collector of eagle memorabilia based in Wabasha realized recently that, while the United States had an official animal (the bison) and flower (the rose), the eagle was getting no formal credit. Several Minnesota legislators sponsored a bill to remedy that and then-President Joe Biden's signature made it official in December. With their massive wingspan and stern curved beak, bald eagles are widely used as symbols of strength and power. In reality, they spend 95% of their day perched high in trees, though when they hunt they can spot a rabbit 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, Ploehn said. For many Native Americans, the soaring eagle represents far more; it delivers their prayers to the Creator and even intercedes on their behalf. 'My grandma told me that we honor eagles because they saved the Ojibwe people when the Creator wanted to turn on them. The eagle, he can fly high, so he went to speak with the Creator to make things right,' said Sadie Erickson, who is Ojibwe and Mdewakanton Sioux. Erickson and a dozen other high school graduates received a bald eagle feather at an early July celebration by the riverbank at Prairie Island. Thunder Hawk said a prayer in the Dakota language urging the high school graduates and graduates receiving higher education degrees to 'always remember who you are and where you come from.' Then they lined up and a relative tied a feather — traditionally on the left side, the heart's side — as tribal members sang and drummed to celebrate them. 'It just feels like I went through a new step of life,' said Jayvionna Buck. Growing up on Prairie Island, she recalled her mother excitedly pointing out every eagle. 'She would genuinely just yell at me, 'Eagle!' But it's just a special occurrence for us to see,' Buck said. 'We love seeing it, and normally when we do, we just offer tobacco to show our respects.' Some Native Americans honor the eagle by taking it as their ceremonial name. Derek Walking Eagle, whose Lakota name is 'Eagle Thunder,' celebrated the graduates wearing a woven medallion representing the bird. To him, eagles are like relatives that connect him to his future and afterlife. 'Being able to carry on to the spirit world … that's who guides you. It's the eagle,' Walking Eagle said. That deep respect attaches to the feathers, too. 'It's the highest respect you can bestow on a person, from your family and from your people, from your tribe,' Thunder Hawk said. 'We teach the person receiving the feather that they have to honor and respect the eagle. And we tell them why.' In many Native cultures, killing an eagle is 'blasphemous,' he said. It is also a federal offense. Historically, Sioux warriors would lure an eagle with rabbit or other food, pluck a few feathers and release it, said Thunder Hawk, who grew up in South Dakota. Today, there's a nationwide program that legally distributes eagle feathers and parts exclusively to tribal members, though it's very backlogged. U.S. wildlife and tribal officials worry that killings and illegal trafficking of eagles for their feathers is on the rise, especially in the West. In Minnesota, eagles are most often harmed by road accidents and eating poison – results of shrinking wildlife habitat that brings them in closer contact with humans, said Lori Arent, interim director of the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. The center treats about 200 injured bald eagles each year. Of those they can save, most are eventually released back into the wild. Permanently disabled birds that lose an eye or whose wings are too badly fractured to fly are cared for there or at other educational institutions like the Wabasha eagle center. The official designation could help more Americans understand how their behaviors inadvertently harm eagles, Arent said. Littering by a highway, for instance, attracts rodents that lure eagles, which then can be struck by vehicles. Fishing or hunting with tackles and ammunition containing lead exposes the eagles eating those fish or deer remains to fatal metal poisoning. Humans have lost the ability to coexist in harmony with the natural world, Thunder Hawk said, voicing a concern shared by Indigenous people from the Chilean Andes to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. He hopes more people might now approach the eagle with the same reverence he was taught. It's what leads him to offer sage or dried red willow bark every time he spots one as a 'thank you for allowing me to see you and for you to hear my prayers and my thoughts.' Erickson, the new graduate, shares that optimism. 'I feel like that kind of shows that we're strong and united as a country,' she said by the Mississippi, her new feather nestled in her hair.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bald eagle's new status as the official US bird brings pride and hope to many Native Americans
PRAIRIE ISLAND INDIAN COMMUNITY, Minn. (AP) — Some Native Americans traditionally bestow bald eagle feathers at ceremonies to mark achievements, such as graduations, and as a form of reverence for the bird they hold sacred as a messenger to the Creator. This year, many are doing so with elevated pride and hope. The bald eagle is now the official bird of the United States, nearly 250 years after it was first used as a symbol of the newly founded nation that's deeply polarized politically today. 'The eagle is finally getting the respect it deserves. Maybe when the nation looks at the eagle that way, maybe there will be less division,' said Jim Thunder Hawk. He's the Dakota culture and language manager for the Prairie Island Indian Community, a small Mdewakanton Sioux band on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. This wide, unruffled stretch of water framed by wooded bluffs is prime bald eagle territory. The size of Minnesota's population of the majestic, white-head-and-tail birds that are exclusive to North America is second only to that of Alaska. The legislation that made the eagle official came from members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation. The federal act recognizes the eagles' centrality in most Indigenous peoples' 'spiritual lives and sacred belief systems,' and a replica of it is on display at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, 40 miles (65 kilometers) downriver from the Prairie Island community, which partners with the center in eagle care. 'If you grew up in the United States, eagles were a part of your everyday life,' said Tiffany Ploehn, who as the center's avian care director supervises its four resident bald eagles. 'Everyone has some sort of connection.' A bald eagle, its wings and talons spread wide, has graced the Great Seal of the United States since 1782, and appears on passport covers, the $1 bill, military insignia, and myriad different images in pop culture. But a prolific collector of eagle memorabilia based in Wabasha realized recently that, while the United States had an official animal (the bison) and flower (the rose), the eagle was getting no formal credit. Several Minnesota legislators sponsored a bill to remedy that and then-President Joe Biden's signature made it official in December. With their massive wingspan and stern curved beak, bald eagles are widely used as symbols of strength and power. In reality, they spend 95% of their day perched high in trees, though when they hunt they can spot a rabbit 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, Ploehn said. For many Native Americans, the soaring eagle represents far more; it delivers their prayers to the Creator and even intercedes on their behalf. 'My grandma told me that we honor eagles because they saved the Ojibwe people when the Creator wanted to turn on them. The eagle, he can fly high, so he went to speak with the Creator to make things right,' said Sadie Erickson, who is Ojibwe and Mdewakanton Sioux. Marking life milestones with eagle feathers Erickson and a dozen other high school graduates received a bald eagle feather at an early July celebration by the riverbank at Prairie Island. Thunder Hawk said a prayer in the Dakota language urging the high school graduates and graduates receiving higher education degrees to 'always remember who you are and where you come from.' Then they lined up and a relative tied a feather — traditionally on the left side, the heart's side — as tribal members sang and drummed to celebrate them. 'It just feels like I went through a new step of life,' said Jayvionna Buck. Growing up on Prairie Island, she recalled her mother excitedly pointing out every eagle. 'She would genuinely just yell at me, 'Eagle!' But it's just a special occurrence for us to see,' Buck said. 'We love seeing it, and normally when we do, we just offer tobacco to show our respects.' Some Native Americans honor the eagle by taking it as their ceremonial name. Derek Walking Eagle, whose Lakota name is 'Eagle Thunder,' celebrated the graduates wearing a woven medallion representing the bird. To him, eagles are like relatives that connect him to his future and afterlife. 'Being able to carry on to the spirit world … that's who guides you. It's the eagle,' Walking Eagle said. That deep respect attaches to the feathers, too. 'It's the highest respect you can bestow on a person, from your family and from your people, from your tribe,' Thunder Hawk said. 'We teach the person receiving the feather that they have to honor and respect the eagle. And we tell them why.' Persistent troubles, but new hope In many Native cultures, killing an eagle is 'blasphemous,' he said. It is also a federal offense. Historically, Sioux warriors would lure an eagle with rabbit or other food, pluck a few feathers and release it, said Thunder Hawk, who grew up in South Dakota. Today, there's a nationwide program that legally distributes eagle feathers and parts exclusively to tribal members, though it's very backlogged. U.S. wildlife and tribal officials worry that killings and illegal trafficking of eagles for their feathers is on the rise, especially in the West. In Minnesota, eagles are most often harmed by road accidents and eating poison – results of shrinking wildlife habitat that brings them in closer contact with humans, said Lori Arent, interim director of the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. The center treats about 200 injured bald eagles each year. Of those they can save, most are eventually released back into the wild. Permanently disabled birds that lose an eye or whose wings are too badly fractured to fly are cared for there or at other educational institutions like the Wabasha eagle center. The official designation could help more Americans understand how their behaviors inadvertently harm eagles, Arent said. Littering by a highway, for instance, attracts rodents that lure eagles, which then can be struck by vehicles. Fishing or hunting with tackles and ammunition containing lead exposes the eagles eating those fish or deer remains to fatal metal poisoning. Humans have lost the ability to coexist in harmony with the natural world, Thunder Hawk said, voicing a concern shared by Indigenous people from the Chilean Andes to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. He hopes more people might now approach the eagle with the same reverence he was taught. It's what leads him to offer sage or dried red willow bark every time he spots one as a 'thank you for allowing me to see you and for you to hear my prayers and my thoughts.' Erickson, the new graduate, shares that optimism.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
The unanswered questions about Air India crash after preliminary report published
Families of the victims of the Air India crash have demanded "justice and answers" after a report found the plane's fuel switches were cut off. The preliminary report from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau was published on Friday, raising further questions about what happened before the crash. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport on 12 June, killing 241 people on board. Another 19 people on the ground died and 67 were seriously injured. As the probe continues, here are some of the unanswered questions about the crash. The preliminary report said both of the plane's fuel switches moved to the "cut-off" position "immediately" after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine. The report reads: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut-off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so." The pilots were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 15,000 hours of flying experience, and Clive Kunder, who had 3,000. The report did not specify who said what in this exchange. Kunder was flying the plane, and Sabharwal was monitoring. The switches were then returned to their normal in-flight position, which triggered an automatic engine relight and a thrust recovery procedure. While the engines started to recover, it was too late, and the plane crashed. It has raised questions about what happened with the switches. Prof Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, said these are used at the end of every flight and in emergency scenarios such as a fire. They are designed so they cannot easily be "accidentally" turned off and pilots would generally run through a checklist before doing so, he told the Press Association. Prof Braithwaite said that if the switch had been moved by a person, that would have been a "very unusual thing to do" at below 1,000 feet. "It's not the point of flight where you try and call for your coffee, it's a period of flight where your focus is very, very clear, and that first 1,000 feet, it's about keeping the airplane climbing and that's not about clicking switches." The switches flipped a second apart, the report said, roughly the time it would take to shift one and then the other, US aviation expert John Nance told the Reuters news agency. Like Prof Braithwaite, he said a pilot would never normally turn the switches off in flight, especially as the plane is starting to climb. The fuel switch information has raised questions over the role of the pilots. Bhaval Shah, a family friend of Kinal Mistry, 24, who died in the crash, told The Times: "If these switches can't be turned off easily and if no software glitch could have been responsible, then it is deliberate, isn't it? Then it's sabotage or suicide." Watch: Fuel cut-off on 787 "can't happen by accident" But there has been pushback against this narrative given it was only a preliminary report. India's civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu told local news channels: "We care for the welfare and the wellbeing of pilots so let's not jump to any conclusions at this stage, let us wait for the final report." The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, quoted in the Hindustan Times, also said on Sunday it is "deeply disturbed by speculative narratives emerging in sections of the media and public discourse - particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide. Let us be unequivocally clear: there is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage." As mentioned above, information about the pilots' exchange about the fuel switch being moved to the "cut-off" position is obscure: it is not known who said what. Furthermore, the preliminary report did not contain a transcript of the pilots' communications in the cockpit. This would have been captured by the cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the wreckage. Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, said "there's likely much more on the cockpit voice recorder than what's been shared". It comes as families of the victims have demanded transparency. Relatives of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa, who died in the crash, said: "Moving forwards, we require honesty, transparency, and an unwavering commitment to uncovering the full truth." Ishan Baxi, cousin of sisters Dhir and Heer Baxi, who were meant to be flying home after surprising their grandmother for her birthday, said he was "not satisfied" by the initial report. He told PA: "I just hope the final report brings full clarity on what exactly failed and who's accountable. It shouldn't hide behind vague terms." If the final investigation takes more than a year to complete, an interim report will be issued on the anniversary of the crash, Prof Braithwaite said, adding that interim recommendations could be made at any time. Meanwhile, the preliminary report said investigators have identified 'components of interest for further examinations". 'Why did he cut off?': what the report on the Air India Flight 171 crash found (The Guardian) Backlash as Air India crash report points to possible human error - here's what experts think (Sky News)
