Fuel to Air India jet engines cut off moments before crash, investigation shows
Before aircraft lost altitude, killing 260 people, one pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel, and the second said he had not
Fuel control switches to the engines of an Air India flight that crashed shortly after take-off, killing 260 people, were moved from the “run” to the “cut-off” position moments before impact, a preliminary investigation report said early Saturday.
The report, issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed from Ahmedabad in western India to London when it crashed, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.
In its 15-page report, the investigation bureau said that once the aircraft achieved its top recorded speed, “the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cut-off switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 1 sec”.
The report did not say how the switches could have flipped to the cutoff position during the flight. The movement of the fuel control switches allow and cut fuel flow to the plane’s engines.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off [the fuel]. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” it said.