Air India cockpit recording suggests captain cut fuel to engines before crash, source says
The US.assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation.
There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which pilot flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment.
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that 'certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting'. It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions.
The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade.
The Federation of Indian Pilots sent a legal notice to Reuters about a July 17 story published by the news agency which referenced the WSJ article.
The notice asked Reuters to desist from publication of any content 'that speculates on the cause of the crash or attributes fault to any individuals, especially deceased pilots, in the absence of official confirmation and final report'.
Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, and under international rules, a final report is expected within a year of an accident.
A preliminary report released by the AAIB said one pilot was 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'.
Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder.
The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from 'run' to 'cut-off' just after take-off, but it did not say how they were moved.
The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787.
The crash has rekindled debate over adding flight deck cameras, known as cockpit image recorders, on airliners.
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