Air India pilots' final conversation before crash that killed 241 revealed
An Air India pilot denied switching the engines to cut off just seconds before the 787 crashed after takeoff, an investigation has found.
A preliminary report on the crash said that both engines lost fuel supply moments after the aircraft lifted off the ground.
It also revealed that Air India engineers had attended to a fault on the plane just an hour before the flight's scheduled departure from Ahmedabad airport in Gujarat.
All but one of the 230 passengers on board the flight bound for London Gatwick were killed in the disaster, which also claimed the lives of 19 people on the ground and injured a further 67.
The pilots of the previous flight had flagged an error with the plane's stabiliser sensor, which indicates the horizontal trim setting.
The report confirmed that Air India Flight 171 had reached a maximum airspeed of 180 knots when the fuel supply to both engines was cut off within a second of each other.
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Cutoff switches are usually only deployed to power down engines after landing or in the event of an emergency in the air, such as an engine fire.
CCTV footage from the airport showed the aircraft's backup Ram Air Turbines (RAT) were activated after the engines cut out.
Analysis of the cockpit voice recorder found that one of the pilots asked his colleague why he had cutoff the engines, to which they responded they hadn't.
Within a minute of the engines switching to cutoff, the crew responded and put them back into 'run' mode in an attempt to restart them.
However less than ten seconds later one of the pilots made a 'mayday' call to ATC.
A question by the ATC operator about the aircraft's call sign went unanswered and the plane crashed just outside the airport's boundary at a residential hostel.
The aircraft was airborne for a total of 40 seconds before it smashed into the ground.
Investigators from India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau have focussed on the 787's fuel control locking feature, which is supposed to prevent accidental deployment during flight.
The system, designed originally in the 1950s, requires pilots to pull up the switch before being able to flip it.
A notice was issued by the US's FAA in 2018 following reports that the feature was installed disengaged on some 737 aircraft.
However Air India did not undertake the recommended inspections as they were not mandatory, the Flight 171 report stated.
There had been no reports of defects on the fuel control switch in the accident aircraft since 2023.
However an unnamed air accident investigator based in Canada suggested the simultaneous deployment of the switches made this crash particularly unusual.
They told the BBC: 'It would be almost impossible to pull both switches with a single movement of one hand, and this makes accidental deployment unlikely.'
Aviation expert Keith Tonkin said it was 'inexplicable' that a pilot would flip the switch just after take off.
He told ABC News Australia: 'It's important to have fuel flowing to the engines, unless you turn them off in the event of an emergency where the procedure requires that. It would not normally be done and it's a deliberate decision to do that.' More Trending
It was the first major incident on a Boeing 787, which entered service in 2014.
The aircraft operating Flight 171, VT-ANB, was manufactured in 2013. Both of its engines had been replaced this year – the left hand side in May, just weeks before the crash.
The investigation has so far ruled out several possible factors, including weather conditions, which were found to be normal during the time of the flight.
The 787 was found to be within acceptable weight limits and not carrying any dangerous goods, and both the pilot and first officer were both adequately rested and declared to fit to fly following a breath analyser test an hour before departure.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Air India plane crash investigation focuses on 'mistake' made by pilots
MORE: Japan Airlines Boeing 737 flight plummets 26,000 ft before emergency landing
MORE: Air India families 'need answers' with sabotage 'not ruled out'
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Scheibner went on to explain: "There is no universe where there's any procedure ever in the history of commercial flight where you place both fuel control switches to cut off, leave them there for 10 seconds, right after, rotate, there is just not a scenario that that fits into. "And this according to the report, that's what happened." 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AN EXPLOSIVE new theory from a top aviation expert has ignited fears that the devastating Air India crash may not have been an accident - but the result of a human act inside the cockpit. Captain Steve Scheibner suggested there was a "human hand" behind the tragedy of fight AI 171 - and insisted the aircraft itself was not to blame. 12 12 12 Scheibner, a seasoned pilot and respected aviation analyst, told Piers Morgan Uncensored: "I don't think Boeing has fault in this one. "My take on it is that the aeroplane was operating exactly the way it was designed, I don't think there was anything wrong with this particular aircraft." The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plummeted into a doctors' hostel just seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad on July 13. It killed 241 passengers and 19 people on the ground in one of the worst disasters in aviation history, with only one passenger miraculously surviving. But while the early narrative leaned toward tragic malfunction, Scheibner was blunt: "When you place both fuel cutoff switches to cut off, that will fuel-starve the engines and they'll both flame out." And whether it was intentional or a mistake, he said: "Some things are plain and some things are clear, whether it was intentional, placing of the fuel control switches to cut off, or unintentional, that's two different things. "But I really firmly believe that there had to be a human hand on both of those for them to go to cut off." His comments follow a damning preliminary report by Indian crash investigators, which found the Dreamliner's fuel switches were manually moved from "RUN" to "CUTOFF" shortly after liftoff - an action that shut down both engines and triggered a fatal loss of thrust. They were turned back to "RUN" seconds before the crash, but it was too late. Cockpit audio captured one pilot asking: 'Why did you cut off?' and the other replying, 'I didn't.' Fuel switch-off on doomed Air India flight looks to be 'conscious human action', former pilot says 12 12 Neither crew member was identified in the report, which also refrained from stating whether the switches were moved by mistake or by deliberate action. "There is no universe where there's any procedure ever in the history of commercial flight where you place both fuel control switches to cut off, leave them there for 10 seconds, right after rotate," Scheibner said, referencing the moment of liftoff. 'Two and a half billion to one' The aviation expert said the offs of a dual engine flameout on a Boeing 787 seconds after takeoff were "two and a half billion to one". "Everything just seems unbelievable," he added. Scheibner went on to explain: "There is no universe where there's any procedure ever in the history of commercial flight where you place both fuel control switches to cut off, leave them there for 10 seconds, right after, rotate, there is just not a scenario that that fits into. "And this according to the report, that's what happened." 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Ex-pilot and aviation commentator Terry Tozer also weighed in this week, calling the odds of accidental switch-off "vanishingly small". He told The Sun: "The fuel cutoff switches were actioned shortly after lift off from RUN to CUTOFF. "That implies that somebody did that as a conscious human action, because so far as we understand, these switches have a lock mechanism." "They have to be lifted in order to be moved," he explained. "Otherwise they lock in position." Tozer flatly dismissed the idea of accidental flicking, saying: "I can't see why any pilot would have their hands anywhere near the area where these switches are located." 12 12 12 Tragic profile emerges The growing suspicion around the crash deepens with revelations about the pilot at the helm. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a respected 56-year-old veteran, was reportedly just months from retirement and grieving the recent death of his mum. Neighbours say he was planning to leave flying altogether to care for his 92-year-old father. 'Just one or two more flights… then I'm going to just be with Papa,' he reportedly told a friend. But now, Captain Sabharwal's mental health is under scrutiny. Aviation sources in India told The Telegraph he had battled depression and taken time off in the years before the crash. Though he passed a Class I medical exam in September 2024, investigators are now combing through his medical records for clues. Leading Indian aviation expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan said: 'I have heard from several Air India pilots who told me he had some depression and mental health issues. He had taken time off from flying in the last three to four years.' Families of the victims who tragically died in the crash have slammed the preliminary report as a cover-up. They have dubbed the investigation"biased" and said it only appears to "blame the dead pilots". The Airline Pilots' Association of India (APAI) rejected the 'tone and direction' of the inquiry and said it came without sufficient evidence. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson also urged caution, warning staff in a leaked memo that the probe was far from over. 'The preliminary report identified no cause nor made any recommendations,' he wrote, adding that 'it provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions.' 12 No fault found with aircraft The report confirmed that there were no mechanical issues, no bird strikes, and no fuel contamination. The aircraft's configuration for takeoff was normal, and both pilots were medically cleared and well-rested. It also highlighted that Boeing's fuel control switches — which require lifting and unlocking before moving — were working as designed. The FAA had issued a non-binding notice in 2018 about switch locking mechanisms on similar aircraft, but no airworthiness directive followed, and Air India admitted it had not carried out the suggested inspections. Still, both Scheibner and Tozer agree: it's extraordinarily unlikely this was a case of pure human error. 'We do know that the switches were placed to cut off,' said Scheibner. 'And 10 seconds later they were placed back to run… if one did it, the other probably was the one that undid it.'
