Viswash walked away from the Air India crash. Other sole survivors know the feeling
Lamson posted on Thursday that he stays in touch with other sole survivors and finds 'there's an unspoken understanding, and it's been comforting'.
'My heart goes out to the survivor in India and to all the families waking up to loss today,' Lamson wrote.
'There are no right words for moments like this, but I wanted to acknowledge it.
'These events don't just make headlines. They leave a lasting echo in the lives of those who've lived through something similar.'
Jim Polehinke was co-pilot of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky when it overran the runway on takeoff, killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew
When his wife told him everyone else on the plane had died, Polehinke wept.
'My first concern was the passengers that were my responsibility that day,' he said in the 2013 documentary.
Adding to survivor's guilt is the fact that the airline announced in the aftermath of the crash that Polehinke and the pilot violated policy by having an extended personal conversation when they were supposed to be focused on the flight.
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But one of the investigators of that crash told the filmmakers the pilots' personal conversation probably had nothing to do with the crash, and everyone told investigators that Polehinke and the pilot were highly competent professionals.
The accident still haunts Polehinke, though, who now uses a wheelchair to get around.
'I don't think there'll ever be a time that maybe I can forgive myself,' he said.
'I just hope that God can give the family members some comfort, some peace and some compassion, so their burden gets less as time goes on.'
Cecelia Crocker doesn't just carry the marks of the 1987 crash she survived on her heart and in the scars on her arms, legs and forehead. She also got an airplane tattoo on her wrist.
Crocker, who was known as Cecelia Cichan at the time of the crash, said in the documentary that she thought about the crash every day.
She was four years old when she flew on Northwest Airlines Flight 255 and it crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, killing 154 people on board, including her parents and brother. Two people also died on the ground.
The Phoenix-bound McDonnell Douglas MD80 was clearing the runway when it tilted and the left wing clipped a light pole before shearing the top off a rental car building.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the plane's crew had failed to set the wing flaps properly for takeoff. The agency also said a cockpit warning system did not alert the crew to the problem.
'I got this tattoo as a reminder of where I've come from. I see it as – so many scars were put on my body against my will – and I decided to put this on my body for myself,' she said.
'I think that me surviving was random. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.'
But Lamson said in the documentary that he did not believe in random chance.
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The Advertiser
18-07-2025
- The Advertiser
Too soon to decide India crash cause, investigators say
India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well."
The Advertiser
18-07-2025
- The Advertiser
Air India cockpit recording 'suggests captain cut fuel'
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the Air India pilots in the June crash suggests the captain cut the fuel to the plane's engines, a source briefed on US officials' assessment of evidence says. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which of the two pilots flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting". It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date. A cockpit recording of dialogue between the Air India pilots in the June crash suggests the captain cut the fuel to the plane's engines, a source briefed on US officials' assessment of evidence says. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which of the two pilots flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting". It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date. A cockpit recording of dialogue between the Air India pilots in the June crash suggests the captain cut the fuel to the plane's engines, a source briefed on US officials' assessment of evidence says. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which of the two pilots flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting". It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date. A cockpit recording of dialogue between the Air India pilots in the June crash suggests the captain cut the fuel to the plane's engines, a source briefed on US officials' assessment of evidence says. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which of the two pilots flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting". It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date.
Perth Now
18-07-2025
- Perth Now
Air India cockpit recording 'suggests captain cut fuel'
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the Air India pilots in the June crash suggests the captain cut the fuel to the plane's engines, a source briefed on US officials' assessment of evidence says. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which of the two pilots flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting". It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date.
