Air India pilot's chilling question seconds before deadly crash revealed – as probe finds switch issue flagged in 2018
Initial
investigation
of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's Black Box indicates a possibility that the
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People look at the debris of an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad of India's Gujarat state
Credit: Alamy
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A view of the site where a plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
Credit: Getty
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Debris at the site of a plane crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
Credit: EPA
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Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was the lead pilot
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Clive Kunder was the co-pilot on the doomed flight
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The plane seconds before disaster with its landing gear still extended
Credit: x/nchorAnandN
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew died when the flight crashed into a medical
hostel just seconds after taking off
- with
, 40, the
.
Another 19 people were killed on the ground in Ahmedabad.
A 15-page preliminary report into the crash, released by the Indian authorities last night, indicates switches to the engines' fuel supplies were moved from the "RUN" position to "CUTOFF".
"The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off," the report said.
more on the crash
This could have triggered a loss of thrust, which resulted in the jet ploughing into a medical college.
Analysis of the cockpit voice recording revealed that one of the pilots asked: 'Why did you cut off?"
To which the other pilot replied: 'I didn't."
Though the report does not identify which comments were made by the flight's captain and which were made by the first officer.
Most read in The Sun
Another sign that the switches were turned off was the deployment of the plane's emergency
power
system, a ram air turbine or RAT, which was pictured hanging down from the flight during its last moments.
Fuel switches are typically flipped to "CUTOFF" position after a flight safely touches down and reaches the airport gate.
Second-by-second breakdown of Air India jet disaster from mayday call to horror crash – all within a minute of takeoff
Or it is done in case of a certain emergency situation, such as the event of an engine fire.
But the inconclusive report, which came after 30 days of the crash, does not indicate that the flight encountered any such emergency situation.
It is almost impossible to turn the switches off accidentally - they must be pulled up and locked before flipping - a safety design feature that was introduced decades ago.
Protective guards are further installed to minimise the risks - raising further questions as to why the fuel switches in the Air
India
flight were turned off.
Sources say the black box analysis has so far been unable to rule out 'improper, inadvertent or intentional' action that caused them to be flipped.
Interestingly, the report points out that the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) - highlighting that a few Boeing 737 fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged.
But it was not deemed unsafe, and no Airworthiness Directive (AD) - a legally enforceable regulation to correct unsafe conditions in a product - was issued.
It is worth noting that the same switch design is used in Boeing 787-8 aircraft, including Air
India
's VT-ANB Dreamliner in question.
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A cockpit of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft
Credit: Getty
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Rescue officials work at the site where the Air India flight crashed
Credit: AFP
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The plane crashed into a doctor's hostel
Credit: EPA
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The report also found that pilots were able to restart one of the engines, but failed to stop the plane from decelerating.
No significant bird activity was observed in the vicinity of the plane's flight path, the report added.
The initial investigation was led by a panel including the Indian authorities and experts from Boeing US and the UK.
Pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder had more than 14,000 hours of flying experience between them - including some 9,000 hours on the 787.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 242 passengers on board - including 53 Brits - smashed into a doctors' hostel in Ahmedabad in the west of India.
The plane was headed to London Gatwick with 232 passengers and 10 crew on board when it crashed just seconds after take-off.
The Dreamliner lost contact just seconds after take-off, according to flight tracking website Flightradar.
A final alert was last logged less than a minute after it started the journey from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
Seconds before the crash, the Boeing was filmed flying low over the Meghani Nagar residential area with the pilots appearing to be in a desperate bid to keep the plane in the air.
Moments later, it was seen disappearing behind buildings before a huge blast was seen in the distance.
Brit passenger Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40,
He cheated death after being flung from seat 11A on the flaming Air India jet - escaping with minor injuries and filmed walking away after the wreck.
Incredible footage showed him walking away from the wreckage almost unscathed.
Flanked by the locals, he can be seen making his way towards an ambulance with blood caking his face.
Speaking in Hindi, he says: "I just got out of the plane, it exploded."
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the only survivor in an Air India plane crash at a hospital in Ahmedabad
Credit: Alamy
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Vishwash Ramesh, the sole survivor of the Air India crash, poses for the first time since the disaster
Credit: Dan Charity
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The Irish Sun
9 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Pilot error, a suicide mission or mechanical issue… just what – or who – turned off the fuel on Air India Flight 171?
TO the terrified locals who ducked when Air India Flight 171 narrowly missed their apartment block, captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his first officer are heroes. They are convinced the two pilots saved hundreds of lives by diverting the jet at the last moment after it suffered a catastrophic lack of thrust seconds after take-off. 5 Captain Sumeet Sabharwal Credit: Instagram 5 Co-pilot Clive Kunder was at the controls of the Air India jet when it crashed 5 Debris from Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, India in June Yet those grateful families, along with the rest of the world, are now contemplating the awful possibility that either This is because That could be down to a mechanical issue or a deliberate act by one of the pilots — and aviation experts have told The Sun that the focus is very much on the latter. The 15-page document released by As the engines cut out, one of the two pilots is heard in the black box flight recording frantically asking the other: 'Why did you cut off?', to which the second insists, 'I did not do so'. Moments after the exchange, the switches were turned back on. One engine did restart but not in time to avert tragedy. The jet roared over a three-storey apartment block where 18 families live right next to Ahmedabad airport, missing the top floor by a few feet. Air India victims' families slam 'cover-up' probe as questions remain over possible engine switch confusion 'Murky situation' It then clipped trees and a building inside a compound belonging to the Army Medical Corps before slamming into a medical college, with nearly 60 tons of aviation fuel exploding in a ferocious fireball. Nineteen people died on the ground and all but one of the 242 people on board were killed. Miracle survivor The preliminary report does not rule out the possibility that the fuel supply was cut off due to a mechanical issue. But industry experts yesterday said the spotlight was firmly on the pilots — first officer Kunder, 32, who was at the controls, and captain Sabharwal, 56, who was 'pilot monitoring'. Terry Tozer, former pilot and author of Confessions Of An Airline Pilot — Why Planes Crash, said: 'The report is absolutely shocking. 'The implication is that somebody on the flight deck turned the fuel switches to cut-off and then somebody rescued that situation and put them back to 'run'. 'The engines began to reignite but they didn't have a chance to recover. The report is absolutely shocking. The implication is that somebody on the flight deck turned the fuel switches to cut-off and then somebody rescued that situation and put them back to 'run' Terry Tozer 'First one switch and then the other was set to cut-off, and that's how it would be done if you were doing it deliberately. 'If we assume the switches were functioning as intended, you could not knock them off accidentally. 'One pilot said to the other, 'Why did you turn the fuel off?' and the other one said, 'I didn't'. 'So obviously one of them thought the other one deliberately turned them off. 'It's a murky situation.' Air safety expert Julian Bray believes that pilot suicide is a possibility, just like in Julian said: 'It's impossible for a pilot to turn the switches from run to cut-off by accident. 'It has to be a deliberate act. 'It could be pilot suicide, which we had with Germanwings. 'We don't know yet from the exchange on the flight deck because one says, 'Why did you turn it off?' and the other comes back, 'I didn't'. Was he suddenly feeling guilty?' Julian also raised the possibility of a software glitch or even a third person being present in the cockpit. He said: 'Could it have been someone in the jump seat? 'The Dreamliner has two jump seats, which are behind the pilot and co-pilot seats. 'It's not uncommon for people to be in the jump seat. 'Quite often pilots or cabin crew will hitch a lift if there are no passenger seats available. 'Someone in one of the jump seats could have been feeling suicidal and leaned over and turned the switches. 5 Air India flight AI171 pictured moments before the crash 5 Thick black smoke billowing from the site after the crash 'It's highly unlikely, but it is conceivable and can't be ruled out. 'Also, what we don't know is whether there is a software override in the Dreamliner that can actually do that automatically. 'If it's a dire emergency then all sorts of other systems come into play that might have been part of another procedure. 'The investigators will be looking at all the systems and will try to work out whether it was fired remotely by the software, because these glitches have happened before.' Aviation lawyer Demetrius Danas, from legal firm Irwin Mitchell, is representing a number of the British victims' families. He said: 'The initial findings are deeply concerning. 'Three seconds after take-off, the fuel was cut off to one engine and then almost immediately the other one. 'It is a really chilling conversation between the two pilots. The initial findings are deeply concerning. Three seconds after take-off, the fuel was cut off to one engine and then almost immediately the other one. It is a really chilling conversation between the two pilotsegan to reignite but they didn't have a chance to recover Demetrius Danas 'Hopefully we will learn what was said before this exchange but it does seem clear these two buttons were switched off and then tried to be put back on again, but it was too late. 'If it is pilot error, was it inadvertent, absent-minded or was it deliberate? 'It is baffling. 'If it's intentional, is it muscle memory doing something you have done many times before but on this occasion at the wrong time? 'The switches are used on every flight, but when it ends. 'This time it was done when it started. 'The families are desperate to know why the engines were starved of fuel and how that happened.' Lawyer, aviation expert and qualified helicopter pilot James Healy-Pratt, of Keystone Law, is representing another 20 of the British families. He added a note of caution to the speculation that the fuel switches were turned off by a deliberate act. James said: 'It is possible they were deliberately touched, but that's as hard as I can go at the moment. 'I think it is too early to come to conclusions such as suicide or mass homicide, because put yourself in the shoes of one of the families. 'It's one thing to lose loved ones from an accident. 'It's very different to lose loved ones who suddenly become victims of an intentional crime. 'Everything does now centre around two things — those fuel control levers and what happened in the cockpit over about 20 seconds. 'We will be filing a lawsuit against Boeing in the States to get more information about those switches. 'It's the only way we have of trying to get some evidence, and our families want answers.' One of the families waiting to learn more are the relatives of Ashok Patel, 74, and his wife Shobhana, 71, from Orpington, Kent. They had been married for 47 years and were flying home after visiting India on a religious pilgrimage. Furious row Ashok was a financial adviser and Shobhana a microbiologist who had worked for the NHS for 37 years. Son Miten, 40, who now wears the emerald ring his dad had on when he died and which was recovered from the crash site, said: 'They had gone through so many challenges in life. 'They had this strength that you don't give up. That is what is keeping us going now. They were inseparable and were loved by so many people. 'It's incredible the number of text messages I have had since they died. 'Dad had the ability to walk into a room and talk to anyone. He was always interested in other people. 'And Mum was the rock of our extended family. She was there every day for any relative, in good times or bad. If someone was coming round for lunch she would make a full-blown Hindu meal. 'I would say, 'Mum, what are you doing? You're spending the entire evening making this huge meal and they are just calling round'. 'She would say, 'They're coming to our house and we always welcome our guests properly'. It's impossible for a pilot to turn the switches from run to cut-off by accident. It has to be a deliberate act. It could be pilot suicide, which we had with Germanwings Julian Bray 'Since the plane went down, there have been so many theories but until we see the final report that this is the cause or that is the cause, only then should we go down that route. 'It is going to take time, which causes more heartache and frustration because people want answers. 'For all of the families this is a tragedy and we are entitled to know what happened and there has to be accountability. 'But we have to wait for the final report and hope it will conclude on evidence-based information which will prevent this from ever happening again.' The preliminary report reveals that But that was not due to any problem with the switches, and there has been no report of any defect with the switches since then, it states. That further turns the focus on to the pilots, which has triggered a furious row in India. The Airline Pilots' Association of India blasted the report because it 'appears biased toward pilot error'. The pilots union added: 'This investigation seems to presume pilot fault, and we strongly object to that narrative. 'We strongly reject any premature conclusions and urge a fact-based, unbiased inquiry.' Meanwhile, the only survivor from the flight continues to struggle to deal with the aftermath a month on from crawling out of the wreckage.
The Irish Sun
21 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Air India victims' families slam ‘cover-up' probe as questions remain over possible engine switch confusion
FAMILIES of the victims who tragically died in the Air India crash have slammed the preliminary report as a cover-up. Mystery has deepened over the actual cause of the crash after an initial investigation found the 13 Officials inspect the remains of the Air India passenger plane at the crash site near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad Credit: EPA 13 Indian firefighters and rescue personnel work on the site of an Air India plane Credit: AP 13 Rear end of the aircraft after it crashed into a medical hostel Credit: Getty 13 The plane seconds before disaster Credit: X/nchorAnandN Initial findings in the 15-page report released by the Indian Authorities indicate switches to the engines' fuel supplies were moved from the "RUN" position to "CUTOFF". "The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off," the report said. Analysis of the cockpit voice recording revealed that one of the pilots asked: 'Why did you cut off?" To which the other pilot replied: 'I didn't." more on Ir India crash Though the report does not identify which comments were made by the flight's captain and which were made by the first officer. However, families of some of the 260 victims have slammed the report, saying "they dont accept it." They have dubbed the report is "biased" and said it only appears to "blame the dead pilots". Ameen Siddiqui, the brother-in-law of Akeel Nanabawa, died alongside his wife and their four-year-old daughter, told The Telegraph: "It's a cover-up to protect Air India and the government. Most read in The Sun "They want to blame dead pilots who can't defend themselves. "How can the fuel switches end up turning off at a critical moment, either through pilot error or a mechanical fault?" Pilot of doomed India Air jet hailed a hero by locals who cheated death by a few feet "And if these pilots were so careless, why did the government allow them to fly at all? Air India until recently was owned by the government." Meanwhile, the cousin of sisters Dhir and Heer Baxi, who were flying home to London after surprising their grandmother for her birthday, said he was "not satisfied" by the report. Ishan Baxi said: "We're still hoping for a more transparent and honest investigation that doesn't shy away from addressing possible mechanical flaws or lapses in protocol to avoid future potential accidents. "I just hope the final report brings full clarity on what exactly failed and who's accountable. It shouldn't hide behind vague terms." Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu told reporters that investigators probed in a "mature, transparent" way. "This is a preliminary report. We want the final report to come in, so let us wait for it," he said. Flipping the switches to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines. It is most often used to turn engines off once a plane has arrived at its airport gate and in certain emergency situations, such as an engine fire. The report does not indicate there was any emergency requiring an engine cutoff. 13 A cockpit view of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft shows the fuel switch; Annotations by The Sun Graphics 13 Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was the lead pilot 13 Clive Kunder was the co-pilot on the doomed flight 13 Debris at the site of a plane crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport Credit: EPA But the inconclusive report, which came after 30 days of the crash, does not indicate that the flight encountered any such emergency situation. It is almost impossible to turn the switches off accidentally - they must be pulled up and locked before flipping - a safety design feature that was introduced decades ago. Protective guards are further installed to minimise the risks - raising further questions as to why the fuel switches in the Air India flight were turned off. Sources say the black box analysis has so far been unable to rule out 'improper, inadvertent or intentional' action that caused them to be flipped. Interestingly, the report points out that the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) - highlighting that a few Boeing 737 fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged. But it was not deemed unsafe, and no Airworthiness Directive (AD) - a legally enforceable regulation to correct unsafe conditions in a product - was issued, The same switch design is used in Boeing 787-8 aircraft, including Air India's VT-ANB Dreamliner in question. 13 The report also found that pilots were able to restart one of the engines, but failed to stop the plane from decelerating. The fuel switches then returned to the "RUN" position and the engines appeared to be gathering power, but "one of the pilots transmitted 'MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY'", the report said. Experts have said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches. "If they were moved because of a pilot, why?" asked U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse. No significant bird activity was observed in the vicinity of the plane's flight path, the report added. Pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder had more than 14,000 hours of flying experience between them - including some 9,000 hours on the 787. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 242 passengers on board - including 53 Brits - smashed into a doctors' hostel in Ahmedabad in the west of India. The plane was headed to London Gatwick when it crashed just seconds after take-off, killing all but one passenger. 13 Landing gear of the Air India plane crashed directly on the BJ Medical College UG hostel mess Credit: x/mitrapredator 13 Search and rescue teams respond to the scene of a plane crash in Ahmedabad, India Credit: AP 13 Vishwash Ramesh, the sole survivor of the Air India crash, poses for the first time since the disaster Credit: Dan Charity 13 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the only survivor in an Air India plane crash at a hospital in Ahmedabad Credit: Alamy
Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Air India pilot's mistake uncovered in report 'couldn't have been accident'
The alleged fatal mistake made by the pilots on the doomed Air India flight that crashed was not an easy one to make, an aviation expert has said. A preliminary report into the crash, that killed 241 onboard the flight, claimed the fuel switches to the engine were reportedly cut off prior to the tragic air disaster. An expert has since claimed these switches are the kind used on every flight, and designed so that this cannot easily "accidentally" happen. The London Gatwick-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport on June 12. A preliminary report from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, published on Friday, said both of the plane's fuel switches moved to the "cut-off" position "immediately" after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine. This report said: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut-off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so." The switches were then returned to their normal inflight position, which triggered an automatic engine relight and a thrust recovery procedure. While the engines started to recover, one of the pilots transmitted a "mayday, mayday, mayday" message before the plane was seen by air traffic control to crash outside the airport. Aviation expert Professor Graham Braithwaite, at Cranfield University, said these fuel switches are used at the end of every flight and in emergency scenarios such as a fire. They are designed so they cannot easily be "accidentally" turned off and pilots would generally run through a checklist before doing so, he added. The professor said: "For obvious reasons, the two switches are a distance apart, so not a huge distance, but enough that you couldn't accidentally switch two when you're trying to switch one. "So it's not like the lights in your house, where they're right next to each other, so there is some space between them. They're in that centre console, so that's in between the two pilots, so they can each reach them with the same ease." Professor Braithwaite said if the switch had been touched by a person at below 1,000 feet, it would have been a "very unusual thing to do". He said: "It's not the point of flight where you try and call for your coffee, it's a period of flight where your focus is very, very clear, and that first 1,000 feet, it's about keeping the airplane climbing and that's not about clicking switches." The professor added: "I could see why a nervous flyer would be nervous at the thought that it's possible to shut both engines down at a critical stage in flight, but for whatever reason, and that there are a number of things that are in place to stop it from accidentally happening." The doomed aircraft was around 11 years old, the fuel switches had been changed two years ago, and the crash was a "really, really unusual event", according to Professor Braithwaite. Of the next stage of the investigation, he said: "If somebody did wilfully move a switch, then was it on the one hand a wilful active sabotage, in which case the investigation changes considerably, because this safety investigation that published the report yesterday will not be leading on that, that would be a police investigation. "So that would change at that point, but if it wasn't clear that it was that wilful action, you'd be looking at, well, what kind of mistake might somebody have made?" If the final investigation takes more than a year to complete, an interim report would be issued on the anniversary of the crash, Professor Braithwaite said, adding that interim recommendations could be made at any time. The preliminary report said all crew members had been breathalysed on their arrival at Ahmedabad airport, and found they were "fit to operate the flight". No significant bird activity was spotted near the flight path and the aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall. Both engines were retrieved from the wreckage and quarantined at a hangar in the nearby airport. Investigators have identified "components of interest for further examinations", the report says. An Air India spokesman said: "Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI171 accident. We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing support during this difficult time." The spokesman added: "Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully co-operate with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and other authorities as their investigation progresses. Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such inquiries to the AAIB."
