
Pilot error, a suicide mission or mechanical issue… just what – or who – turned off the fuel on Air India Flight 171?
They are convinced the two pilots saved hundreds of lives by diverting the jet at the last moment after it suffered a catastrophic lack of thrust seconds after take-off.
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Yet those grateful families, along with the rest of the world, are now contemplating the awful possibility that either captain Sabharwal or co-pilot Clive Kunder may actually be the villain of the story.
This is because the preliminary report into the disaster, which claimed 260 lives, has revealed the plane crashed due to the engines being starved of fuel.
That could be down to a mechanical issue or a deliberate act by one of the pilots — and aviation experts have told The Sun that the focus is very much on the latter.
The 15-page document released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau states that the switches controlling fuel supply to the two engines were turned off three seconds after take-off as the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner reached 210mph.
As the engines cut out, one of the two pilots is heard in the black box flight recording frantically asking the other: 'Why did you cut off?', to which the second insists, 'I did not do so'.
Moments after the exchange, the switches were turned back on.
One engine did restart but not in time to avert tragedy.
The jet roared over a three-storey apartment block where 18 families live right next to Ahmedabad airport, missing the top floor by a few feet.
'Murky situation'
It then clipped trees and a building inside a compound belonging to the Army Medical Corps before slamming into a medical college, with nearly 60 tons of aviation fuel exploding in a ferocious fireball.
Nineteen people died on the ground and all but one of the 242 people on board were killed.
Miracle survivor Vishwash Ramesh, 40, was able to crawl through the mangled fuselage and walk to safety, but his brother Ajay, 35, died in the crash.
The preliminary report does not rule out the possibility that the fuel supply was cut off due to a mechanical issue.
But industry experts yesterday said the spotlight was firmly on the pilots — first officer Kunder, 32, who was at the controls, and captain Sabharwal, 56, who was 'pilot monitoring'.
Terry Tozer, former pilot and author of Confessions Of An Airline Pilot — Why Planes Crash, said: 'The report is absolutely shocking.
'The implication is that somebody on the flight deck turned the fuel switches to cut-off and then somebody rescued that situation and put them back to 'run'.
'The engines began to reignite but they didn't have a chance to recover.
The report is absolutely shocking. The implication is that somebody on the flight deck turned the fuel switches to cut-off and then somebody rescued that situation and put them back to 'run'
Terry Tozer
'First one switch and then the other was set to cut-off, and that's how it would be done if you were doing it deliberately.
'If we assume the switches were functioning as intended, you could not knock them off accidentally.
'One pilot said to the other, 'Why did you turn the fuel off?' and the other one said, 'I didn't'.
'So obviously one of them thought the other one deliberately turned them off.
'It's a murky situation.'
Air safety expert Julian Bray believes that pilot suicide is a possibility, just like in the German-wings disaster of 2015 when 150 people died after the first officer deliberately flew into a mountain.
Julian said: 'It's impossible for a pilot to turn the switches from run to cut-off by accident.
'It has to be a deliberate act.
'It could be pilot suicide, which we had with Germanwings.
'We don't know yet from the exchange on the flight deck because one says, 'Why did you turn it off?' and the other comes back, 'I didn't'. Was he suddenly feeling guilty?'
Julian also raised the possibility of a software glitch or even a third person being present in the cockpit.
He said: 'Could it have been someone in the jump seat?
'The Dreamliner has two jump seats, which are behind the pilot and co-pilot seats.
'It's not uncommon for people to be in the jump seat.
'Quite often pilots or cabin crew will hitch a lift if there are no passenger seats available.
'Someone in one of the jump seats could have been feeling suicidal and leaned over and turned the switches.
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'It's highly unlikely, but it is conceivable and can't be ruled out.
'Also, what we don't know is whether there is a software override in the Dreamliner that can actually do that automatically.
'If it's a dire emergency then all sorts of other systems come into play that might have been part of another procedure.
'The investigators will be looking at all the systems and will try to work out whether it was fired remotely by the software, because these glitches have happened before.'
Aviation lawyer Demetrius Danas, from legal firm Irwin Mitchell, is representing a number of the British victims' families.
He said: 'The initial findings are deeply concerning.
'Three seconds after take-off, the fuel was cut off to one engine and then almost immediately the other one.
'It is a really chilling conversation between the two pilots.
The initial findings are deeply concerning. Three seconds after take-off, the fuel was cut off to one engine and then almost immediately the other one. It is a really chilling conversation between the two pilotsegan to reignite but they didn't have a chance to recover
Demetrius Danas
'Hopefully we will learn what was said before this exchange but it does seem clear these two buttons were switched off and then tried to be put back on again, but it was too late.
'If it is pilot error, was it inadvertent, absent-minded or was it deliberate?
'It is baffling.
'If it's intentional, is it muscle memory doing something you have done many times before but on this occasion at the wrong time?
'The switches are used on every flight, but when it ends.
'This time it was done when it started.
'The families are desperate to know why the engines were starved of fuel and how that happened.'
Lawyer, aviation expert and qualified helicopter pilot James Healy-Pratt, of Keystone Law, is representing another 20 of the British families.
He added a note of caution to the speculation that the fuel switches were turned off by a deliberate act.
James said: 'It is possible they were deliberately touched, but that's as hard as I can go at the moment.
'I think it is too early to come to conclusions such as suicide or mass homicide, because put yourself in the shoes of one of the families.
'It's one thing to lose loved ones from an accident.
'It's very different to lose loved ones who suddenly become victims of an intentional crime.
'Everything does now centre around two things — those fuel control levers and what happened in the cockpit over about 20 seconds.
'We will be filing a lawsuit against Boeing in the States to get more information about those switches.
'It's the only way we have of trying to get some evidence, and our families want answers.'
One of the families waiting to learn more are the relatives of Ashok Patel, 74, and his wife Shobhana, 71, from Orpington, Kent.
They had been married for 47 years and were flying home after visiting India on a religious pilgrimage.
Furious row
Ashok was a financial adviser and Shobhana a microbiologist who had worked for the NHS for 37 years.
Son Miten, 40, who now wears the emerald ring his dad had on when he died and which was recovered from the crash site, said: 'They had gone through so many challenges in life.
'They had this strength that you don't give up. That is what is keeping us going now. They were inseparable and were loved by so many people.
'It's incredible the number of text messages I have had since they died.
'Dad had the ability to walk into a room and talk to anyone. He was always interested in other people.
'And Mum was the rock of our extended family. She was there every day for any relative, in good times or bad. If someone was coming round for lunch she would make a full-blown Hindu meal.
'I would say, 'Mum, what are you doing? You're spending the entire evening making this huge meal and they are just calling round'.
'She would say, 'They're coming to our house and we always welcome our guests properly'.
It's impossible for a pilot to turn the switches from run to cut-off by accident. It has to be a deliberate act. It could be pilot suicide, which we had with Germanwings
Julian Bray
'Since the plane went down, there have been so many theories but until we see the final report that this is the cause or that is the cause, only then should we go down that route.
'It is going to take time, which causes more heartache and frustration because people want answers.
'For all of the families this is a tragedy and we are entitled to know what happened and there has to be accountability.
'But we have to wait for the final report and hope it will conclude on evidence-based information which will prevent this from ever happening again.'
The preliminary report reveals that Flight 171's throttle control module, which includes the fuel switches, was replaced in 2023.
But that was not due to any problem with the switches, and there has been no report of any defect with the switches since then, it states.
That further turns the focus on to the pilots, which has triggered a furious row in India.
The Airline Pilots' Association of India blasted the report because it 'appears biased toward pilot error'.
The pilots union added: 'This investigation seems to presume pilot fault, and we strongly object to that narrative.
'We strongly reject any premature conclusions and urge a fact-based, unbiased inquiry.'
Meanwhile, the only survivor from the flight continues to struggle to deal with the aftermath a month on from crawling out of the wreckage.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Astonishingly good value' – the best supermarket tofu, tasted and rated
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Boiling showed that all the tofus held their shape, while frying brought out major differences in colouring, crust and bite: some crisped up beautifully, others stayed soft and chewy, so if you mainly fry your tofu, that's worth bearing in mind. It's also worth noting that organic tofus are GMO-free by definition. 89p for 180g at Aldi (49p/100g)★★★★★ A small, beige block with rounded edges and a sweet, familiar soya aroma. It's a super-firm tofu with a dense, satisfying bite that holds up brilliantly to cooking, especially frying. Made with 57% EU-grown organic soya, it's very high in protein (14g a serving) and astonishingly good value. A real standout. £1.34 for 300g at Sainsbury's (45p/100g)★★★★☆ A great blank canvas with a subtle aroma and gentle, sweet taste. Firm but moist, and transformed by frying to a golden-crusted, deep flavour. Made from organic, non-EU soya (34%), it's high in protein and excellent value. 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Owned by Windmill Organics, a great company committed to organic farming, which earns it a bonus point.


BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Make di world dey eat less rice?
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"Between 50 and 56 percent of di world population rely on rice as di principal staple," Dr Ivan Pinto, Director General of di International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) tok. E dey equal to nearly four billion pipo wey dey eat rice as dia primary food every day. Dem dey plant rice on large scale across South and Southeast Asia, as growing demand dey for Africa and varieties also present for Europe and Latin America. But rice dominance in global diets come wit a cost. A thirsty crop "Rice na very thirsty plant," Jean-Philippe Laborde, managing director of Tilda, one UK-based rice company wey belong to Spanish multinational Ebro Foods explain. "E dey consume between 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water per kilogram of rice grown, wey be a lot." Majority of rice production dey happun for flooded fields, particularly for South and South East Asia. Dis method dey support di crop but also dey create environment wit low oxygen, wey dey known as anaerobic conditions. "Wen fields dey flooded… microorganisms proliferate dey produce large amounts of methane," Dr Ivan Pinto tok. Methane na potent greenhouse gas, wey dey responsible for about 30% of global warming, according to di International Energy Agency. IRRI estimate say rice production account for 10% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Greener methods Tilda don dey try one water-saving method wey dey known as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD). E involve to put pipe 15cm below di ground. Instead of di constantly flooding fields, farmers go irrigate only wen water no dey in di pipe. "Normally you get 25 cycles within your growth period," Laborde tok. "By applying AWD technique, you fit reduce dat to 20. So, by cutting five [flooding] cycles, you fit save methane emissions." In 2024, Tilda bin expand im trial from 50 to 1,268 farmers. Di results dey striking. "We fit reduce di water [usage] by 27%, di electricity by 28%, and fertilisers by 25%,"Laborde. E points out say yields in di meantime increased by 7%. "So, na not just to increase di revenue wit a higher cost, di increasing revenue wit lower cost," e tok. Laborde underline say methane emissions also dey drop by 45% and e believe say dis fit fall by as much as 70% if flooding cycles dey reduced even further. Climate stress While rice dey help feed billions – particularly through high-yield varieties like IR8 from di Green Revolution – climate change now dey threaten di production, as rice dey grow for regions wey dey experience intense heat, drought, heavy rainfall or floods. For India, temperature bin reach 53C during di rice-growing season for 2024. In Bangladesh, more frequent and intense floods dey spoil crops. IRRI dey turn to dia vast gene bank of 132,000 rice varieties to find solutions. One key breakthrough na gene wey dey allow rice plants to survive underwater for up to 21 days. "Dis varieties fit persist under flooded conditions long enough for di floods to recede, without affecting yield, "Pinto, add say dem dey increasingly popular in flood-prone regions of Bangladesh. Alternative staples Some govments don try to encourage populations to move away from rice. For Bangladesh, goment bin carry out one campaign 15 years ago as part of attempt to promote potatoes as alternative, as di price of rice bin dey go up steadily. "We love potatoes… but entirely to dey chop only potatoes instead of rice no be sometin pipo dey reason," Dhaka resident Shareef Shabir recall. China bin launch similar initiative to for 2015, promote potatoes as a nutritious superfood. Di kontri bin become leading producer of potatoes in di 1990s and for many parts of di kontri, pipo don dey used to eating potato as a staple food. Yet, di campaign still fail. "For south-west and north-west China, pipo there dey occasionally chop potatoes as staple," Jakob Klein, one anthropologist for SOAS University of London. But, e say, for many areas di potato dey linked wit poverty. "Pipo for di south-west of China tell me say dem grow up eating potatoes. Dat way na to say 'I grow up in poverty'. Stigma dey associated wit eating potatoes," e tok. Difficult choice Globally, rice remain deeply embedded in pipo lives. E dey tasty, easy to cook, store and transport. Di world dey consume an estimated 520 million tonnes of rice annually. In di Philippines, Adrian Bianca Villanueva admit say while she fit cut back, to give am up dey difficult. "Even if I no wan eat rice, if I go to party or different house, dem go always offer rice," she tok. "I think I go eat less rice – but not totally take am out, sake of say na part of our daily lives."


Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Aviation expert questions ‘missing seconds' in Air India disaster report with timestamps that ‘don't match up'
An aviation expert has demanded answers over the unexplained 10 seconds before the tragic Air India crash that killed 260 people, saying: 'The timestamps just don't match up.' A preliminary report into the tragedy revealed that before the crash, two fuel switches - which are used to start or shut down the engines and are typically left on during flight - were moved from 'Run' to 'Cutoff', depriving the engines of fuel. The report also revealed there had been confusion in the cabin when Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kunder, 28, realised the fault, before desperate attempts were made to flick them back. In an inteview with Piers Morgan on his YouTube show Uncensored, Captain Kishore Chinta - a military aviator and former air accident investigator - said that unexplained actions and delays during a 10-second window after takeoff are central to understanding what went wrong with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. He said: 'The timestamps just don't match up. And if it took one second to put out both the switches quickly, why did it take four seconds to put them back on?' 'Practically, whatever happened, happened in the first 10 seconds from the lift off. The timestamp doesn't match up', Chinta added. The doomed aircraft took off at 8:08:39 seconds in Ahmedebad for its journey to London. About three seconds later, the jet with 242 people on board reached its maximum recorded airspeed. But within the space of just one second, both of the plane's engine fuel switches turned off from its run positions. In addition, the report did not reveal any further conversation between the two pilots during in the moments before the disaster. It would take another 10 seconds before the first fuel switch was moved back to its run position, and another four seconds after that for the second switch to snap back, according to a sequence laid out in the official preliminary report on the fatal crash. Following the preliminary report, questions have been raised over the intentions of the pilot of the Air India plane Captain Sabharwal, with some commentators believing the commercial flight was brought down deliberately. The veteran aviator, who had more than 8,200 hours in the cockpit, is being looked into by investigators over suggestions he turned off the plane's fuel switches, causing it to lose power. But Captain Chinta blasted this theory and said: 'We're doing gross injustice to the pilots who are not there to defend themselves by guestimating and coming up with theories which are mere assumptions.' He added the key to solving the mystery of the doomed flight could lie with the fuel cut off switches and whether they can be turned off in any other way than manually. 'Those fuel switches went to cut off but the report doesn't mention anywhere that those, physically, those switches moved. That is what is the key to the entire theory. So, those switches, moved? We do not know. Yes, those shut off the fuel supply, which caused the engines to lose power? Yes. Why that happened, we do not know right now'. Internet star Captain Steve, joined in on the conversation with Piers Morgan and revealed that he believes one of the pilots was behind the crash. Seconds after taking off on June 12, two fuel switches in the cockpit of Air India Flight 171 were turned off, a preliminary report revealed Hoorifying footage showed the moment the plane crashed, with a massive fireball erupting in the horizon 'The only answer that really fits all of the parameters is that the fuel control switches, as they say in the report, transitioned from run to cut off. 'But that doesn't happen without human intervention, and anybody that operates those switches knows that they are spring-loaded into position. They have a detent to hold them there. They don't vibrate out of position. That's never happened…The only way you can move those switches is to put a hand on them and move them back and then move them back up.' But he has also called for more transparency. 'You know, what would solve all this Piers, would be if the people who wrote this report got in front of a camera and behind a microphone,' he said. Ed Pierson, Executive Director & Foundation for Aviation Safety and former Boeing worker, told Piers Morgan Uncensored that before concluding it was the pilot's fault all the possible system errors should be considered. 'There's a lot of things that need to be examined here, systems wise, before we again jump to the conclusion that this was a pilot making a mistake or even intentionally.' The doomed Air India flight crashed last month and killed 260 people. It had set off for London at 1:38pm and remained airborne for about 30 seconds before losing power and falling to the ground. Upon impact, it was engulfed by a huge fireball, claiming the lives of all but one person on board. Sources close to the investigation believe recordings of the conversation from the Boeing's black box support the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. Friends and colleagues also reject the idea Sabharwal was responsible, claiming he was a 'gentle soul' and an 'ace pilot' who had never been involved in any major incident prior to the crash. Neil Pais, 61, a former colleague of Sabharwal, told The Telegraph he was 'one of the nicest people you could ever hope to fly with'. 'He had absolutely no airs about himself, so humble, so respectful. Always a smile when he spoke to you,' he added. 'I never once saw him raise his voice or lose his temper. And yet he never compromised on work or safety. If there was an issue, he'd point it out, but always in the nicest possible way.' Another colleague and close friend, Captain Kapil Kohal, said Sabharwal was a 'hero' with a 'gentle soul'. Despite his nickname of 'Sad Sack', given because of his 'melancholic eyes', Sabharwal was 'deeply charismatic and always ready to help,' he added. A family member cries upon hearing the news of her brother who died when the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. An Air India spokesperson previously said: 'Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI171 accident' But the sadness noticed by his peers was resultant of a deeper tragedy. Sabharwal had struggled to come to terms with the death of his mother in 2022 and in the wake of her passing had separated from his wife and moved from Delhi to Mumbai, to be closer to his elderly father, Pushkaraj. Investigations into the tragic crash have reportedly begun to analyse Sabharwal's behaviour after 'several' Air India pilots allegedly confirmed he suffered from poor mental health. He is understood to have taken bereavement leave after his mother's death. Although it is believed that he had been 'medically cleared' by Air India prior to the fatal crash. Friends also revealed Sabharwal had considered retiring as a pilot to help care for his 90-year-old father full time.