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Air India crash: Who is on the AAIB team that released the report on Flight AI-171?
Wreckage of Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft, which was operating flight AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London, placed under tight security, seen a month after the tragedy, in Ahmedabad. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) published its preliminary report on the crash on Saturday. PTI
The Air India crash in Ahmedabad last month, which resulted in the death of 260 people, has put the spotlight on the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) as it released its preliminary report into the deadly crash on Saturday, July 12.
Over the weekend, a five-member expert team, led by 56-year-old Sanjay Kumar Singh, released a 15-page report providing a detailed timeline of Air India flight AI171's final minutes, confirming that both engines shut down seconds after lift-off and that neither pilot acknowledged switching them off.
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The AAIB's preliminary report stated that the fuel switches of the two engines were cut off immediately, with a time gap of one second after take-off. However, the report hasn't been able to determine why the fuel cut-off switches for both engines moved to 'cutoff' in-flight.
While questions are still being asked about the report, we move our focus to what exactly is the AAIB and how capable are they of dealing with such situations?
Understanding the AAIB
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is a government agency within the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Its main purpose is to probe aircraft accidents and serious incidents in India's airspace. The agency was set up in 2012 with the purpose of carrying out investigation into accidents, serious incidents and incidents. In fact, the AAIB's mandate is strictly safety-focused: to prevent and not to punish.
Incidentally, prior to the formation of the AAIB, probes such as the Air India one, were handled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which also regulates airlines. This could result in a bias, which led to the formation of the AAIB.
Until date, the AAIB has carried out investigations in over 150 crashes in the country. It also probed the 2020 Kozhikode crash in which 21 people died after the plane overshot the runway.
The AAIB's head office is Udaan Bhawan, New Delhi. Image Courtesy: @27saurabhsinha/X
But, what are AAIB's functions?
The AAIB is tasked to carry out investigations into categories of accidents, serious incidents and incidents. Rule 3 of Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 clearly states that the objective of investigations carried out by the AAIB is prevention of accidents and incidents and not to apportion blame or liability.
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In cases of accidents, the AAIB is responsible for carrying out probes, which includes collecting evidence such as the plane's black boxes, flight data and witness statements. Once this is done, the AAIB then presents a draft report. Once it is consulted and deliberated upon, the final report is made public and published on the official website. The accepted 'Final Investigation Reports' are also forwarded to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the specialised agency of the United Nations, and the states participating in the investigation.
The AAIB also publishes safety studies from time to time.
The AAIB reports are of significance in the aftermath of a crash or accident. It helps to improve air safety. In fact, recommendations made from previous reports have helped in drafting newer rules, better pilot training and even changes in aircraft design.
Who's who in the AAIB team probing Air India crash
Following Air India flight AI171's crash in June in Ahmedabad, the AAIB formed a five-member team to probe the incident. Here's who's in the team and who's heading it:
1) Sanjay Kumar Singh: Helming the team investigating the Air India crash is AAIB director director Sanjay Kumar Singh. He has a 15-year experience in aircraft accident investigation and aviation safety. At 56, Singh has managed investigations into 15 accidents or serious incidents and has overseen the classification of at least 300 reported occurrences.
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2) Jasbir Singh Larhga: Working with the AAIB for a decade, Larhga has been involved in various aircraft accident investigations, including the crash in India's Kozhikode in 2020. He also worked with the DGCA as well as with Pawan Hans and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
With an experience of over 15 years, Sanjay Kumar Singh, currently serving as director of AAIB, is the head of the team probing the Air India crash. Image Courtesy: LinkedIn
3) Vipin Venu Varakoth: Varakoth is an Assistant Director of Air Safety at DGCA based in Mumbai for more than seven years. He had also served as Air Safety Officer for nearly seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
4) Veeraragavan K: An assistant director of air safety at DGCA in Mumbai for close to four years, he has also served as an Air Safety Officer in the national capital for nine years. His LinkedIn page reveals that he also worked as an analysis engineer with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a little over a year in Chennai.
5) Vaishnav Vijayakumar: An Air Safety Officer at the DGCA, Vijaykumar has been part of various aircraft accident/incident investigations.
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If there is something wrong with the software, it commands the fuel shutoff valve to close. With the fuel control switch still in run position, the engines can shut down." An excerpt from the AAIB report is as follows: "The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC, and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec. The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off." Captain Ranganathan differed with Captain Rai and said, "You can hold both the switches, pull them out and move," to which the Dreamliner pilot said, "I do not agree with that." Captain Rai said, asking for a full transcript of the pilots' conversation in the cockpit, said, "The report does not talk about the timeline when this sentence, 'Why did you CUTOFF?', was spoken, and that's an important point. "This sentence may have been spoken at a time when they were trying to relight the engine. So, the other pilot may have asked, Did you cut it off? He said, No." "If the pilot had done it deliberately, then there must have been a solid argument in the pilots will not keep quiet, right? There must have been a solid argument in the cockpit. Why did he do it? And you are going to kill all of us," he added. Manual Intervention? "Absolutely Absurd," Says Expert Captain Kishore Chinta, a chief pilot at Sirius India Airlines, strongly opposed Mr Ranganathan's views and said, "I find it absolutely absurd to say that the pilots planned to deliberately turn the switches off. For the simple reason that even if we go by the paraphrased, one sentence in the report, which says that one pilot asked, it is indicative of a surprise element, that it surprised one pilot, and the other pilot answered, Hey, I didn't do it. "The report is absolutely silent and paraphrasing in terms of the selective release of information. If there was a timestamp of each event with what happened in the cockpit in terms of warnings, what was the altitude, what was the engine parameters at that time, followed by cockpit voice recorder, CAM 1, CAM 2, the interaction between the pilots or any warnings picked up, all these would have given us a more, you know, clearer picture on if there was any deliberate action," he said. "Nobody is deliberating on the fact that these switches can be moved uncommanded? Everyone is saying they can only be physically moved. The only reason those switches are recycled is to reset the EEC logic. The electronic engine control logic is reset in case of a dual engine failure to reactivate the start cycle, the igniters and the fuel metering unit; all these logics are reset. If we go by the theory that it was a suicide, why even touch those switches? Takeover controls and just flip the wings over." Squat Switch And Landing Gears Captain MR Wadia, the President of the Federation of Indian Pilots, did not agree with the "manual intervention" argument and explained why the landing gear of the aircraft did not go up when the aircraft was airborne. Captain Wadia said, "As the aircraft is about to take off, the power, everything is fine. There's enough power and enough speed to get the aircraft airborne. However, as he (Captain Ranganathan) pointed out, the first call is positive, radar climb gear up, now, that is a normal call, and I presume the pilot who was supposed to call has called that thing. But why hasn't the gear gone up?" "The reason for this is the squat switch. All aircraft today, whether it's Boeing or Airbus, have something called the squat switch, an electrical switch, that identifies whether the aircraft is on the ground or in the air. Even if you by mistake pull the undercarriage lever switch won't allow it to go up because it is indicating to the computer system that the aircraft is still on the ground." The other aspect in the other, which Captain Wadia stressed upon, was the deployment of RAT or Ram Air Turbine - a propeller that gives emergency power to an aircraft for navigation. Captain Wadia said only these two pieces of evidence are present, and "why would we presume a suicide angle to this?" "Were the fuel switches touched? Yes, but after they were in CUTOFF position and were moved to RUN position," he said, adding that we should go by the pilot's word when he said 'I did not cutoff'. YN Sharma, CEO of Chimes Aviation, said, "The only thing we are getting from the report is that the action of both switches moved from RUN to CUTOFF is a deliberate action. If there is a software issue, and the supply is cut off from the back, but that won't physically move the switch. For that, you need a hand that will physically move the needs to be investigated what prompted that action." He said that as per the information Flight Data Recorder (FDR), the switches were moved from RUN to CUTOFF, and then a few seconds later, they were moved back to the RUN position. Almost five seconds later, the pilot gave a 'MAYDAY' call, and then the aircraft crashed. "This is a preliminary this point, we should have the full transcript of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and FDR Data in the public domain. You have these many data points and this is a preliminary report," Mr Sharma said. 'Who Gets Benefit From This Narrative?' Captain Chintan concluded by saying, "Even the deliberation that the pilot did something is a great disservice to them because they are not there to defend themselves, and also to the family members who lost their loved ones." "What we need to understand is who is getting benefits from this narrative?" he asked. "Does it benefit the Indian aviation regulator, the aviation community or the manufacturer? That will answer all your questions." Referring to the WSJ report, he said, "Why this narrative is being pushed by the western media and where the money is. It benefits the insurers by blaming the pilots and the manufacturers by taking away the liability from them." The AAIB mentioned there was a known FAA advisory from 2018 on a possible fuel switch flaw that existed, but inspections were not done by Air India. The airline's CEO, Campbell Wilson, said the report found no mechanical or maintenance issue with the doomed aircraft or its engines. A Reuters report said that the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing have privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe. "The FAA does not consider this issue to be an unsafe condition that would warrant an Airworthiness Directive on any Boeing aeroplane models, including the Model 787," the Reuters report said. Two hundred and sixty people died in the crash, including 241 passengers. Only one flier on seat 11A survived but battles trauma from the June 12. The report does not clearly define whether the switches were deliberately moved or if it was a mechanical flaw, but families are still waiting for answers while mourning the loss of their loved ones.
