Air India crash: Fuel switches abruptly moving to 'cut-off' may have triggered calamity, reveals AAIB preliminary report
In the early hours of July 12, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released its 15-page preliminary report, which reveals the trigger behind the crash to be quite ominous and inexplicable. As per cockpit voice recordings retrieved, one pilot realised that the fuel switches, set to 'run' when a plane takes off and is airborne, had been switched to 'cut-off'. This prompted him to ask the other pilot, "Why did you cut off?", to which the latter replied, "I did not do so". For clarity, the fuel switches of a plane are set to 'cut-off' following the plane's landing and at no point in-between.
Aviation expert John Cox has weighed in on the situation via Reuters, clarifying that a pilot could not accidentally move the fuel switches. The seemingly foolproof mechanism is actually much more nuanced. A BBC report outlines that the fuel switches are actually safeguarded with a lever-lock mechanism, specifically designed to prevent accidental activation. Speaking to them, a Canada-based air accidents investigator further affirmed, "It would be almost impossible to pull both switches with a single movement of one hand, and this makes accidental deployment unlikely".
Following the crash, Boeing, owing to its growing history of faulty aircraft, came under severe backlash. Their official statement on the matter so far reads, "We will defer to the AAIB to provide information about AI171, in adherence with the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization protocol known as Annex 13".
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NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
Deliberate Or Mechanical Flaw? Pilots vs Pilot Over Air India Crash Report
New Delhi: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's preliminary report on its probe into the Air India crash on June 12, in which 260 people were killed, has stirred speculations and debates on two fronts. Firstly, whether there was a deliberate attempt made by the pilot to turn off the fuel switches from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' position during takeoff and secondly, the Wall Street Journal article, which came 20 hours and 8 minutes before the AAIB report was officially released, that focused on "Pilots' Actions and Plane's Fuel Switches". Earlier on NDTV, Captain Mohan Ranganathan, one of India's leading aviation experts and an ex-instructor of Boeing 737, made a stunning claim that the crash of AI171 may have been the result of deliberate human action because the fuel switches can only be moved "manually". However, former pilots and aviation experts have strongly opposed this view. In a roundtable of four aviation experts and ex-pilots, Mr Ranganathan's views were questioned, who stood by his claim of "deliberate manual selection". What Captain Ranganathan Said? On June 12, in an interview with NDTV, the aviation expert was asked if one of the pilots intentionally switched off the fuel, fully aware that doing so could cause a crash, to which Captain Ranganathan said, "Absolutely." On Monday, Mr Ranganathan reiterated his views and said, "The report (AAIB report) points to deliberate manual intervention. The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) report has said this; there was nothing wrong with the switches today. The switches can't slide back to cut off. So it has to be pulled out and moved back. So that is possible only with a manual intervention." The probe team from AAIB found the fuel switches in the RUN position at the crash site However, Mr Ranganathan has questioned the "wishy-washy" nature of the report, which only mentions one line from the pilot's interaction - One pilot asked, "Why did you cut off?" The other replied, "I didn't". He has called for the release of the full cockpit voice recorder (CVR) data, which will have the sequence of who said what when the fuel switches transitioned to 'CUTOFF'. Captain Ranganathan, however, never inferred that it was done intentionally by the pilot to crash the plane, though he did mention that one of the pilots had a "medical history" and was on medical leave earlier, which led to Dreamliner Pilot Opposes "Manual Intervention Argument" Captain Rakesh Rai shared insights on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's characteristics, his experience of flying the same aircraft, and his views on the AAIB report and the "suicide angle" being debated. "Even if they (AAIB) don't want to publish the RT transcript at this stage, it is difficult to digest that only two sentences were spoken in the cockpit. If you look at the picture, which was published in the report, the aircraft is barely 50 to 80 feet or maybe 100 feet above the ground, and the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) is already deployed. It means that something happened right at the time of rotation, when the aircraft is just starting, and the engines have failed," he said. Captain Rai highlighted an important part of the report - The words used by AAIB to describe 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF'. He said they have used the word "transition", adding, "In these modern aeroplanes, you don't need to cut off the fuel control switch. Everything is transmitted electronically. So, even if the fuel switch is in the run position, it can go into the cutoff position without moving the fuel control switch. The fuel can just shut off. 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.
Hindustan Times
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Time of India
5 hours ago
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Fight between 2 flyers forces taxiing SpiceJet plane to return to IGIA terminal; both handed over to CISF
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