Fuel switches were not faulty, says Air India, adding to pilot blame
Air India found no problems with the locking mechanism of the fuel control switch of all Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft in its fleet, the spokesman said.
The captain of the crashed jet is likely to have cut off the fuel supply before it went down in Ahmedabad, US officials believe.
The first officer, who was flying the Boeing 787-9, questioned why the captain had moved switches to the cut-off position, according to a US assessment of the black box data.
He reportedly expressed surprise and panic while the captain remained calm, the Wall Street Journal reported.
All but one of 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were killed when the aircraft plunged into a medical student hostel in a built-up suburb last month, less than a minute after take-off from Ahmedabad airport.
In response to the tragedy, India's aviation regulator ordered airlines to check fuel switches on Boeing jets after a preliminary report released by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that switches controlling fuel flow to the jet's two engines were turned off, leading to a catastrophic loss of thrust at take-off.
The switches were moved in succession, one second apart, according to the report. Some 10 seconds later, the switches were turned back on. The report did not say whether the switches may have been turned off accidentally or deliberately.
The findings explain why the jet's emergency-power generator, known as a ram air turbine, appeared to have been activated moments before it plummeted to the ground.
While the initial report does not draw any conclusion, it has raised questions about the actions of Sumeet Sabharwal, the lead pilot, and Clive Kundar, the co-pilot, who had more than 19,000 hours of flying time between them.
In the moments before the disaster, Captain Sabharwal, 56, issued a mayday call. However, after the aircraft reached a maximum altitude of barely 400ft above the runway all contact was lost. The plane then glided down towards the ground and crashed into an explosion of fire.
The Telegraph previously revealed that Air India crash investigators were examining the medical records of Mr Sabharwal amid claims that he suffered from depression and mental health problems.
Captain Sabharwal had been considering leaving the airline to look after his elderly father following the death of his mother in 2022.
The crash was the first fatal accident involving Boeing's Dreamliner.
However, the airline had already suffered reputational damage after a string of safety and quality problems.
The Dreamliner, which entered service in 2011, is popular among commercial airlines and is commonly used on international long-haul routes.
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