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UPI
15-07-2025
- Business
- UPI
India aviation regulator orders airlines to check Boeing fuel switches
Domestic Indian airlines were ordered to carry out inspections of fuel switches on Boeing aircraft in their fleets by the country's aviation regulator in the wake of last month's deadly Air India crash in Ahmedabad in western India. File Photo by Hanif Sindh/UP | License Photo July 15 (UPI) -- Civil aviation authorities in India instructed domestic airlines to inspect fuel switches on Boeing aircraft in their fleets after the initial findings of an investigation of the Air India Flight 171 crash in June suggested fuel to the engines was shut off during takeoff. The order was made after a number of Indian and international carriers began conducting voluntary examinations of a locking mechanism that prevents the switches from being accidentally flipped to the cutoff position, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Monday. The Indian aviation watchdog's direction, which is mandatory, came amid swirling speculation surrounding two possible explanations -- human error or sabotage -- for the seemingly inexplicable disaster that claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 passengers and crew and at least 15 people on the ground. A part-transcript of the conversation between the pilots contained in Friday's preliminary report by Indian crash investigators revealed one asking the other why he had moved the fuel switches to "cutoff" from "run" -- which the other pilot categorically refutes doing. The news was the catalyst for speculation that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lost all power shortly after takeoff because one of the pilots shut off the fuel to both engines, either accidentally or deliberately. Earlier Monday, the chief executive of Air India warned staff of the airline to refrain from speculating, saying the initial report had found no mechanical or maintenance faults with the aircraft or its engines and that all Air India Boeing 787s had been checked and found to be airworthy. Airline pilot unions also called for an end to what they called "deeply disturbing speculative narratives." The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association said it was particularly perturbed by "the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide." "There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage. It is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved." It added that the pilots had "acted in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions, and the pilots shouldn't be vilified based on conjecture." A third school of thought, that the switches could have somehow been flipped unintentionally or a fault caused them to shut off by themselves, emerged after the preliminary report referenced a 2018 FAA advisory covering "some Boeing models." The alert warned that a locking mechanism to prevent the switches from being accidentally flipped may not have been installed correctly. However, it did not mandate that airlines take any action and therefore was not acted upon by all airlines, including Air India. No malfunction or unintentional flipping of the switches, with different variants of the same switch used across many Boeing models, is even known to have occurred. Families of the people who were killed in the crash, air India's worst non-terror related incident, have been calling for answers and want investigators to share more of what they know. "Justice should be served. Action should be taken against those responsible," said Ayushi Christian, who lost her husband Lawrence in the June 12 disaster. South Korea was also in the process of ordering all operators of Boeing aircraft to conduct checks. South Korea's transport ministry did not provide a timetable for when airlines were required to complete the checks, but said that they were in line with U.S. Federal Aviation Administration guidance issued in 2018.
UPI
14-07-2025
- Business
- UPI
Air India CEO: Mechanical, maintenance issues played no part in crash
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson came out Monday to defend the former state-owned airline amid intense speculation surrounding its worst ever non-terror related crash when a fully-laden London-bound Boeing 787 came down in a built up area just beyond the perimeter of Ahmedabad airport. File Photo by Hanif Sindh/UP | License Photo July 14 (UPI) -- Mechanical or maintenance issues have been ruled out as the cause of last month's deadly Air India crash that killed all but one of the 242 passengers and crew aboard and many more on the ground, the airline's CEO claimed Monday. Campbell Wilson told airline staff in an internal memo that the preliminary investigation had found no mechanical or maintenance faults with the aircraft or its engines and that all the airline's Boeing 787s had been checked since the June 12 crash and found to be airworthy. He also said the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit of Flight 171 had passed breathalyzer testing as they came on duty and that no medical issues had been flagged with either man. Campbell urged staff to refrain from "drawing premature conclusions" given that the investigation, which was being led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, was still in its very early stages. The comments came as the industry was reeling over the AAIB's preliminary report released on Friday, found that switches controlling fuel to both engines were in the "cutoff" position immediately before the aircraft lost all power shortly after takeoff. The mystery over how the switches came to be flipped from "run" has fueled speculation over what could have led to that scenario and if the crash could have been averted, with the pilots' union saying its members were being scapegoated without evidence and families demanding investigators share more of what they know. "Instead of focusing on such interpretations, I suggest we note that the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance issues with the aircraft or engines, and that all mandatory maintenance tasks had been completed. There was no issue with the quality of fuel and no abnormality with the take-off roll," said Wilson. "Until a final report or cause is tabled, there will no doubt be new rounds of speculation and more sensational headlines. We must nevertheless remain focused on our task and be true to the values that have powered Air India's transformation journey over the past three years," he added. South Korea became the latest country Monday to order its airlines to conduct urgent inspections of the cockpit fuel switches of Boeing aircraft in their fleets, following on from Ethihad, in line with a 2018 U.S. Federal Aviation Administration advisory bulletin referenced in the preliminary report. The 2018 alert covering "some Boeing models," warning a guard to prevent the switches being accidentally flipped had not been installed correctly, did not mandate airlines take any action was therefore not acted upon by all airlines. The bulletin was issued after some operators of Boeing 737s reported that a lock that was supposed to stop unintentional movement of the fuel cutoff switches was incorrectly fitted in some aircraft. Aerospace Global News said these switches were the same design across the Boeing model range, including in the 787 Dreamliner, but that no accidental shut-downs are ever known to have occurred. A decision by Indian authorities not to allow the aircraft's black boxes to be sent overseas for analysis has raised eyebrows amid intense scrutiny of India's civil aviation sector following the disaster in the western city of Ahmedabad. The Civil Aviation Directorate General, which is conducting a separate investigation focusing on safety standards, has issued warnings over repeated aircraft maintenance and inspection failings at Delhi and Mumbai airports. The watchdog identified concerns regarding "ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action," warning that the issues it had found were not isolated. When aircraft were undergoing servicing, safety protocols and certain faults were ignored by some maintenance engineers who sometimes failed to adhere to scheduled maintenance tasks and checks, it said. The International Civil Aviation Organization sets strict standards for aircraft maintenance, which is tightly regulated, but compliance and oversight is delegated to local officials on the ground in member countries.
UPI
11-07-2025
- General
- UPI
Report: Fuel cut to Air India Flight 171 engines before deadly crash
Search and recovery teams examine the tail section of Air India Flight 171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner after it crashed in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12. Photo by Hanif Sindh/UPI | License Photo July 11 (UPI) -- The fuel switches to both engines on the Air India Flight 171 moved to the "cutoff" position immediately before the crash that killed 260 after taking off on June 12. The two switches that control the fuel supply to the two jet engines on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were switched to the off position as the aircraft took off, a preliminary report released by investigators on Friday, The Seattle Times reported. The engines shut off within a second of one another, which caused the aircraft to crash just a mile away from the Ahmedabad, India, airport, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said in the preliminary report. The crash killed 241 passengers and crew, plus 19 others on the ground, but one person survived the disastrous crash. "Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI 171 accident," the company said in a statement. "We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing support during this difficult time." Airline officials are working with investigators and other authorities to determine the exact cause of the crash, according to the unattributed statement. The investigation into its cause has focused on the two fuel-control switches that are located in the aircraft's cockpit, which investigators said were changed from the "run" position to "cutoff," according to CNN. "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other, 'Why did he cut off'" the fuel supply to the engines, the report says. "The other pilot responded that he did not do so." The aircraft had attained a speed of 180 knots, or about 207 mph, when first one and then the other switches were changed to the cutoff position about a second apart, which caused the aircraft to lose its lift and crash, investigators said. The switches were returned to the "run" position, but it was too late, and one of the pilots called out, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday," the report says. The flight was bound for London's Gatwick Airport but was airborne for only 32 seconds and crashed just a mile from the airport. The flight's captain was a 56-year-old male with more than 15,000 hours of flight experience, and the flight's first officer was a 32-year-old male with more than 3,400 hours of flight experience. The captain and first officer tested negative for intoxicating substances before the flight, the aircraft was in good condition and its weight was within acceptable limits, according to the preliminary report. The flight took off at 1:30 p.m. local time and was scheduled to land in London about five hours later. Crash victims include 169 from India, 53 from the United Kingdom, seven from Portugal and one from Canada. The lone survivor is from the United Kingdom and escaped through an opening in the fuselage. The aircraft was built at Boeing's Everett, Wash., facility, recorded its first flight in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in 2014. The 787 Dreamliner is Boeing's smallest wide-body commercial aircraft and holds up to 242 passengers and crew. The preliminary report was released 30 days after the crash in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization's guidelines, which requires receipt of such reports within 30 days of a fatal crash. Investigators from the United States and the United Kingdom are assisting the investigation.
UPI
27-06-2025
- General
- UPI
Analysis of flight recorder data from Air India crash gets underway
Air accident investigators in Delhi have begun studying data downloaded from two black boxes from the crash site of Air India flight 171 in Ahmedabad after they were recovered two days apart by State Disaster Response Force search teams earlier this month. File Photo by Hanif Sindh/UPI | License Photo June 27 (UPI) -- Indian air accident investigators have begun analysis of flight recorder data from the deadly Air India crash earlier in June after successfully recovering the information from the two black boxes on board. Investigators in Delhi began sifting through the data after an Air Accident Investigation Bureau team, assisted by U.S. National Transportation Safety Board specialists, downloaded it from the memory of the Crash Protection Module after safely extracting it from the front black box, the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry said Thursday in an update. "The analysis of Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder data is underway. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences," said the ministry. However, it could be weeks before the conclusions drawn from the recorder data, which captures key information on the position of flap and throttle levers and engine and fuel parameters as well as conversation and sounds in the cockpit, are made public. London-bound Air India flight 171 crashed into a heavily populated area June 12 shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew and killing and injuring dozens more on the ground. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with two very senior, experienced pilots at the controls, was seen to lift off and climb normally before apparently stalling at around 600 feet and plummeting to the ground with its landing gear still down. The captain issued a mayday call, but air traffic control received no reply when it responded seconds later, creating the scene for one of civil aviation's most mysterious disasters involving an aircraft that is among the safest ever made. Experts said it was unusual for there to be such a long gap between finding the boxes at the crash site and downloading what was on them. Search teams discovered the CVR and FDR, known as Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders on the 787, on June 13 and June 16, respectively, according to the aviation ministry. The news came after Indian authorities postponed sending the boxes to the United States for analysis as had been expected, with Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Nadu confirming the data would initially be examined by India's AAIB experts. A decision on whether either of the flight recorders should be shipped overseas for further analysis would be taken once a comprehensive evaluation of technical, safety and security factors had been carried out by the AAIB, the government said Thursday. Indian authorities' approach has raised eyebrows amid intense focus on the safety record of the country's civil aviation sector in the wake of the disaster with the aviation watchdog issuing warnings over repeated aircraft maintenance and inspection failings at Delhi and Mumbai airports. The Civil Aviation Directorate General, which is carrying an appraisal of the industry separate to the Air India investigation in an effort to provide public reassurance, said the fact the issues were far from isolated incidents was indicative of "ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action." It also found that safety protocols and certain faults were ignored by some maintenance engineers when aircraft were in for servicing, and that they didn't always adhere to scheduled maintenance tasks and checks. Aircraft maintenance is highly regulated under standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, but relies on domestic authorities for compliance and oversight.
UPI
20-06-2025
- General
- UPI
Air India identifies crew from crash, announces service reductions
Search and recovery teams examine the tail section of Air India flight 171 after it crashed in Ahmedabad, India last week. Photo by Hanif Sindh/UPI | License Photo June 20 (UPI) -- Air India on Friday named the cabin crew members who died in last week's crash aboard Flight AI171, which went down just after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, India. The airline posted to X a statement that identified the 10 crew members killed in the incident, and called them "beloved colleagues, cherished friends, and the soul of every journey they were a part of." Air India also posted the name of the flight's First Officer on Thursday, and then announced that a temporary reduction in flights aboard Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft would begin as of Saturday and continue into mid-July. "The reductions arise from the decision to voluntarily undertake enhanced pre-flight safety checks," the company explained in a social media post, "as well as accommodate additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East." "The objective is to restore schedule stability and minimize last-minute inconvenience to passengers," it added. As a result, flights AI169/170 from Amritsar and AI145/146 from Mopa, both Indian cities, to London Gatwick have been suspended until at least July 15, while flight AI961/962 between Delhi, India, and Nairobi, Kenya, has been suspended until at least June 30. The frequency of flights to North America, Europe, Australia and East Asia continue but have been reduced until July 15. Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, was bound for London when it crashed last week in a populated area and struck a medical college shortly after takeoff, killing more than 260 people. Air India publicly identified the captain Tuesday. The investigation into why Flight AI171 crashed continues. It has been publicly stated that the plane had a new engine, as well as another that wasn't due for servicing until December. The aircraft's black box is being sent to the United States for analysis due to its reportedly being damaged in the crash. There has also been speculation that either two of its engines failed or there was either a total hydraulic or electronic malfunction. The entire Air India Dreamliner fleet has been under inspection, and so far, 26 out of its 33 Dreamliners have been returned to service.
