INDIA - Investigators have made a chilling discovery in the preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash which killed 260 people in June. Just seconds after take-off,...
both of the 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner's fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss. Switching to "cut-off" is a move typically done only after landing.
The cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why he "did the cut-off", to which the person replies that he didn't. The recording doesn't clarify who said what. At the time of take-off, the co-pilot was flying the aircraft while the captain was monitoring.
The switches were returned to their normal inflight position, triggering automatic engine relight. At the time of the crash, one engine was regaining thrust while the other had relit but had not yet recovered power.
Air India Flight 171 was airborne for less than 40 seconds before crashing into a crowded neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, marking one of India's most baffling aviation disasters.
Investigators are probing the wreckage and cockpit recorders to understand what went wrong just after take-off. The Air India flight climbed to 625 feet in clear weather before los-ing location data 50 seconds in, per Flightradar24. Saturday's 15-page report offers early insights.
The investigation - led by Indian authorities with experts from Boeing, General Electric, Air India, Indian regulators, and participants from the US and UK - raises several questions. (BBC)