Engine fuel switches cut off before Air India crash that killed 260, preliminary report finds | Air India Ahmedabad plane crash

Fuel to the engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.

Air India flight AI171 crashed into a densely populated residential area in Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 passengers and 19 others on the ground. It was the deadliest air crash in a decade.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had been bound for London.

Under international aviation rules, the investigating state must file an initial report with any findings within 30 days of an air crash.

The report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that switches in the cockpit that controlled fuel moved to a “cutoff” position and suggested that Boeing and engine maker GE had no apparent responsibility for the accident.

It said: “The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 knots IAS [indicated airspeed] 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 1 second.

“The engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their takeoff values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off.”

The aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall, it added.

One pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.

It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight’s captain and which by the first officer, nor which pilot transmitted “mayday, mayday, mayday” just before the crash on 12 June.

The commanding pilot of the Air India plane was Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, who had a total flying experience of 15,638 hours and, according to the Indian government, was also an Air India instructor. His co-pilot was Clive Kunder, 32, who had 3,403 hours of total experience.

The preliminary findings do not say how the switch could have flipped to the cutoff position.

A US aviation safety expert, John Cox, said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. “You can’t bump them and they move,” he said.

Flipping to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines. It is most often used to turn engines off once a plane has arrived at its airport gate and in certain emergency situations, such as an engine fire. The report does not indicate there was any emergency requiring an engine cutoff.

“If they were moved because of a pilot, why?” asked US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse.

The switches flipped a second apart, the report said, roughly the time it would take to shift one and then the other, according to US aviation expert John Nance. He added that a pilot would normally never turn the switches off in flight, especially as the plane is starting to climb.

One section of the report explained how one of the engines was able to restart after transitioning to cutoff, but could not reverse the plane’s deceleration.

Engine 1’s core deceleration stopped, reversed and started to progress to recovery, the report says, while engine 2 was able to relight but “could not arrest core speed deceleration”.

Air India acknowledged the report in a statement. The carrier said it was cooperating with Indian authorities but declined further comment.

The US National Transportation Safety Board thanked Indian officials for their cooperation in a statement and noted that there were no recommended actions in the report aimed at operators of Boeing 787 jets or the GE engines.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said its priority was to follow the facts where they lead and it was committed to promptly addressing any risks identified throughout the process.

Boeing said it continued to support the investigation and its customer Air India. GE Aerospace did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The report also found that at least five buildings were destroyed and 19 people on the ground died after the plane crashed into a hostel for medical students, the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy medical college and civil hospital, outside the airport.

Both of the plane’s black box recorders were located in the days after the crash, one found on 13 June on the rooftop of the building of the crash site, the other on 16 June in the crash debris.

The report appeared to discount the possibility that a bird strike brought the plane down, saying no significant bird activity was observed in the vicinity of the plane’s flight path.

There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian and 12 crew on board the flight.

The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national, escaped the wreckage through an opening in the fuselage.

Ramesh’s brother Ajay was also on the ill-fated flight but did not survive the tragedy.

Speaking from his hospital bed last month, the 40-year-old said the plane felt like it was “stuck in the air” shortly after takeoff before lights began flickering, adding: “It suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.

“I can’t believe how I came out of it alive. For a moment, I felt like I was going to die too but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realised I was alive. I still can’t believe how I survived.

“I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out. I don’t know how I survived. I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me … I walked out of the rubble.”

Ramesh was one of the pall bearers who carried his brother’s coffin to the crematorium in the town of Diu last month.

An Air India spokesperson said: “Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI171 accident. We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing support during this difficult time.

“Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses. Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such inquiries to the AAIB.”

Reuters contributed to this report