Air India flight 171 crash: Indian pilots' body slams US media report on cockpit voice recording, ‘will take action'
Captain Randhawa dismissed the claims as baseless and vowed to take action against the publication, saying the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's (AAIB) preliminary report on the Air India plane crash makes no mention of the pilots turning off the switches controlling fuel flow to the engines.
'...Nowhere in the report has it been mentioned that the fuel control switch was turned off due to the pilot's mistake. I condemn the article. They said it was the pilot's mistake. They [the publication] have not read the report properly, and we will take action against them through FIP,' Captain CS Randhawa told ANI.
"Neither the report nor the Civil Aviation Minister has said that it was pilot error...You must relate this to the incident of ANA NH985, which occurred on January 17, 2019. At the time of landing, when the pilot selected thrust reversers, both engines shut down without the pilot moving the fuel control switch. I am quite clear that this is a repetition of the TCMA (Throttle Control Malfunction Accommodation) malfunction, and this needs a thorough investigation of the TCMA. Boeing has not taken any action yet and has not even tried to issue a directive that all these aircraft should be checked for TCMA functions. Secondly, there is not a single pilot in the investigation committee," he said.
"….I am against this American media. They are deliberately giving their own opinion, their own views from this report, while there is nothing like this in the report. So I very strongly condemn this report of the Wall Street Journal and we will take action on it," he added.
Meanwhile, aviation expert Sanjay Lazar has also expressed concern over the leak of investigation details in the United States, pointing out that India's official preliminary report only contains a short pilot denial and lacks the full cockpit voice recorder transcript.
A preliminary report on Air India flight 171 crash released last week by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before the June 12 crash and raised fresh questions over the position of the critical engine fuel cutoff switches, the report said.
The AI 171 crash of the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 aircraft in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, killed 260 people, including 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground.
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