
Air India crash probe: Captain's role questioned in WSJ report, but no hard evidence yet
The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the June 12 crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people. Recommended For You
A preliminary report into the crash released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday said one pilot was then heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so."
tay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.
Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal did not say if there was any evidence that Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight.
India's AAIB, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air India and two unions representing Indian pilots did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the Wall Street Journal report. Boeing declined to comment.
The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from run to cutoff a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were flipped.
Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines.
The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 650 feet, the jet started to sink.
The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to run, and the airplane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said.
But the plane was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters.
The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. No safety recommendations
In an internal memo on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.
The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE.
After the report was released, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed and four sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date.
Nonetheless, investigators "still have to dig into all the factors" and rule out other possible contributing factors which would take time, he said.
Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, and under international rules, a final report is expected within a year of an accident.
The Air India crash has rekindled debate over adding flight deck cameras, known as cockpit image recorders, on airliners.
Nance said investigators likely would have benefited greatly from having video footage of the cockpit during the Air India flight.
Air India has faced additional scrutiny on other fronts after the crash.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said this month it plans to investigate its budget airline, Air India Express, after Reuters reported the carrier did not follow a directive to change engine parts of an Airbus A320 in a timely manner and falsified records to show compliance.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Khaleej Times
9 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Russian plane crash: Investigators recover flight data recorders
Investigators have recovered flight data recorders from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Russia's far east, killing 48 people, and will send them for analysis, Russian authorities said Friday. The aircraft, an Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was making a second attempt to land in the remote Siberian town of Tynda when it disappeared from radar around 1pm local time (0400 GMT) on Thursday. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Tynda's airport. Prosecutors have not commented on what may have caused the crash, but a rescuer quoted by the TASS news agency said the twin-propeller plane -- almost 50 years old — was attempting to land in thick cloud. Investigators are looking into whether the crash was caused by technical malfunction or human error, the agency reported. "The flight recorders have been found at the crash site and will be delivered to Moscow for decryption in the near future," Russia's transport ministry said in a statement. Russian authorities have also launched an investigation into the plane's operator, Angara Airlines, and whether it complied with regulations, it added. "Based on the findings, a decision will be made on the company's future operations," the ministry said. Angara Airlines, a small regional carrier based in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, said it was doing "everything possible to investigate the circumstances of the accident". The company's CEO, Sergei Salamanov, told Russia's REN TV channel on Thursday that it was the plane's captain — an experienced pilot with 11,000 hours of flight time — who decided to make the flight. "The weather forecast was unfavourable," he said. The plane came down in a hard-to-reach area and it took a ground rescue team hours to reach the site. Russia's transport ministry said the families of the 48 killed — six of whom were crew — would receive five million rubles' ($63,000) compensation each. The number killed could have risen to 49 if Marina Avalyan, who was already sitting on the plane, had not been asked by her daughter to urgently get off and return home, according to a story reported by Argumenty i Fakty newspaper. The daughter wanted Avalyan to look after her newborn baby, as she was taking her second child to a hospital, the daily said. "I have no words to describe it: is this a miracle? Thank God she returned! My child has saved my mother," Zimina told Argumenty i Fakty.


Emirates 24/7
2 days ago
- Emirates 24/7
Plane crashes in Russia's far east, nearly 50 people on board feared dead
An Antonov An-24 passenger plane carrying about 50 people crashed in Russia's far east on Thursday, and initial information suggested that everyone on board was killed, Russian emergency services officials said. The plane was en route from the city of Blagoveshchensk to Tynda and dropped off radar screens while approaching Tynda, a remote town in the Amur region bordering China. There were 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members on board according to preliminary data, Vasily Orlov, regional governor, said. Debris from the plane was found on a hill around 15 km (10 miles) from Tynda. Authorities announced an investigation into the crash. Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Khaleej Times
Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east
Russian rescuers have found the fuselage of an Antonov-24 passenger plane that disappeared from radar earlier in Russia's far east, the emergencies ministry said Thursday. "An Mi-8 helicopter operated by Rosaviatsiya (Russia's civil aviation authority) has spotted the burning fuselage of the aircraft," Russia's emergencies ministry said on Telegram.