Air India crash: new details in probe shift focus to plane’s captain, report says
The senior pilot was the one who turned off switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane’s engines, a black box recording indicates
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain turned off the switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane’s engines, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials’ early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the crash, which killed 260 people.
The first officer, who was flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, asked the more experienced captain why he moved the switches to the “cut-off” position after it climbed off the runway, the report said.
The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
A preliminary report into the crash released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday said the fuel switches had switched from run to cut-off a second apart just after take-off, but it did not say how they were flipped.
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Air India plane bound for London crashes moments after take off in Ahmedabad
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.