Unexpected fuel cutoff preceded Air India plane crash, preliminary report says
Advertisement
The switches have safeguards designed to stop them from being inadvertently moved.
'Each switch has a mechanical lock where you have lift the switch up and then move it, so it's highly unlikely for switches like this to be inadvertently moved absent some mechanical failure,' said Jeff Guzzetti, the former director of the Federal Aviation Administration's Accident Investigation Division.
It is also unusual that both switches inadvertently moved to the cutoff position 'one right after another, one second apart,' Guzzetti added. Guzzetti did not rule out the possibility the switches may have been intentionally moved, citing the need to also investigate the pilots.
The preliminary report was released around 1 a.m. local time Saturday. The investigation is still in its early stages and is not likely to be completed for more than a year.
Advertisement
The Boeing 787 took off from Ahmedabad airport in western India before crashing down into a dormitory at a medical college, causing a massive fireball. All but one of the 242 people on the plane were killed, as were 19 people on the ground. One passenger made a miraculous escape from the doomed jet.
The airliner was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. The plane appeared to roll down the runway and take off normally, according to experts who have reviewed videos from the scene. But after just a few seconds in the air, the jet stopped climbing. The pilots transmitted a mayday call 23 seconds after the first switch flipped into the cutoff position, according to the report.
The plane's landing gear remained down and video and audio suggests an emergency device known as a ram air turbine, or RAT, had deployed on the plane, experts have said, potentially evidence of a rare double engine failure. The device drops from the bottom of an aircraft, spinning as it moves through the air to provide emergency power.
But in the weeks since the crash, it has remained unclear what might have ultimately caused the plane to crash. Aviation news site, The Air Current, reported this week that investigators were focusing on the movement of fuel switches on the flight deck, citing people familiar with the probe. The switches are typically used to control the flow of fuel when starting and stopping the engine, but they can also be used if an engine needs to be restarted in flight.
The findings issued Friday are required under international standards governing crash investigations. But they are a summary of facts available to investigators and do not include conclusions about why the crash happened. It is likely to take investigators a year or more to complete their work. The US National Transportation Safety Board is leading a team of Americans aiding the probe, but responsibility for releasing information remains with Indian officials.
Advertisement
The report's authors note that they make no recommendations to Boeing, the manufacturer of the plane, or General Electric, the maker of the engine.
Authorities typically provide regular briefings to the public immediately after serious crashes, but in the case of the Air India crash, little official information had been shared. That left a void filled in some cases by misinformation, and it stoked concern among international safety experts that the lack of transparency would make it difficult for other airlines to know whether any broader safety risks needed to be urgently addressed.
The investigation got off to a slow start. The plane's black boxes, which record conversations between the pilots and log data from the jet's systems, were recovered from the wreckage in the days after the crash, but investigators did not begin to analyze data from them until June 24 at a lab in Delhi. The information in the boxes will be vital to investigators as they piece together what went wrong.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
9 hours ago
- The Hill
2 flight attendants injured in Southwest Airlines flight
Two flight attendants were injured on a Southwest Airlines flight taking off in Burbank, Calif. after the plane made several sudden altitude changes to avoid colliding with another aircraft. CNN reported that the Las Vegas-bound flight made a sudden drop of 475 feet in order to avoid a privately owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet. The commercial jet then climbed about 600 feet in about a minute. The extent of the injuries were not disclosed. 'Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances,' the airline said in a statement to NewsNation. 'Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.' The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it was investigating the incident and that it was in contact with the airline. Most commercial planes are equipped with an alert system to avoid collisions that can direct pilots to climb or descend rapidly. The avoided collision comes less than a week after a SkyWest Airlines plane made what the pilot called an 'aggressive maneuver' during landing in North Dakota to avoid a B-52 bomber. In January, an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter during a training exercise above the Potomac River, killing 67 people. The FAA has since modified helicopter routes in and around Washington Reagan National Airport, some of the most complex and restricted airspace in the country.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Southwest flight drops 475 feet to avoid 'midair collision' with Hawker Hunter
A Southwest flight rapidly descended 475 feet to avoid a Hawker Hunter aircraft on Friday, according to flight tracking data and passengers on the plane. About six minutes after Southwest flight 1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport in Los Angeles County, it abruptly descended from 14,100 feet to 13,625 feet, according to flightRadar24. Steve Ulasewicz, a passenger on the flight who said that they experienced what felt like a "significant drop," told ABC News the pilot announced that they had performed the maneuver to "avoid a midair collision." Southwest Airlines said in a statement that two flight attendants are being treated for injuries after the incident. MORE: Southwest Airlines to start charging checked bag fee this week The other plane, a Hawker Hunter with the N number N335AX, was at an altitude of approximately 14,653 feet when the Southwest flight began to descend. A source told ABC News, there were multiple Hawker Hunter aircraft in the area doing a normal operation at the time. Southwest said the flight continued to its destination of Las Vegas, "where it landed uneventfully." The airline added that it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration "to further understand the circumstances" of the event. When a plane's collision avoidance system detects a possible collision, the plane will either go down or up and the other plane will do the opposite. Preliminary data shows the planes were several miles apart when the pilots received their alerts. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Solve the daily Crossword
Los Angeles Times
12 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Southwest flight from Burbank drops hundreds of feet to avoid possible collision
A Southwest flight climbing away from Burbank Airport suddenly descended hundreds of feet Friday afternoon, possibly to avoid a mid-air collision. The plane was at 14,100 feet above Angeles National Forest headed northeast to Las Vegas at 12:03 p.m. when it abruptly dropped to 13,625 feet, data from Flightradar24 showed. The drop of around 500 feet moments after the plane had been gaining altitude steadily since takeoff, causing tense moments on the plane. Passengers said on social media that they were startled but the move. Few details were immediately available Friday afternoon about exactly what prompted the pilot to make the emergency maneuver, though the posts claimed the pilot announced that the change in course was necessary to avoid a collision. The commercial flight had to climb and descend to comply with two onboard traffic alerts, Southwest spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said in a statement to The Times. 'The flight continued to Las Vegas, where it landed uneventfully,' the statement said. 'Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances.' 'No injuries were immediately reported by Customers, but two Flight Attendants are being treated for injuries,' Lunsford said. The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports. A military jet was headed southwest to Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu and was at similar altitude — at 14,525 feet when the Southwest flight dropped, per Flightradar24. The planes were around 5 miles apart and within 400 vertical feet of one another headed in opposite directions when the Southwest flight took evasive action, flight data on the website showed. The fighter jet stopped its own steady descent and maintained its height for several minutes after the incident. The plane landed in Las Vegas at 12:39 p.m. Friday. There has been growing focus on aviation safety in recent months. A series of radar outages at Newark Liberty International airport brought massive flight delays in May. Federal officials continue to investigate the January collision in Washington between a commercial jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people. In San Diego, a private jet crashed, and killing all six on board in June. A federal investigation found the aircraft was flying too low before it hit power lines and slammed into a house. The automated system that provides weather conditions and runway lights weren't operating at the airport before the plane crashed, the report confirmed. This is a developing story and will be updated.
