A US media report brings to the centre stage the response of the aircraft captain, who flew the plane that crashed in Ahmedabad. Fresh information on last month’s Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, killing 260, has come to light this week, bringing to the centre stage the response of the top pilot in the final moments before the plane crash.
The report issued on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to United States officials’ initial evaluation of evidence that the audio recording of the last speech between the two pilots contained in the black box, says that the captain may have deactivated the switches governing the supply of fuel to the plane’s engines.
Last week, an interim report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) concluded that the two engines had shut down within one second, resulting in instant loss of altitude, before the aircraft crashed into a residential suburb of Ahmedabad. The report, however, indicating the fuel-control switches had been moved into the “cutoff” position, did not attribute blame for the crash.
Two unions of commercial pilots have dismissed rumours that human failure could have contributed to the catastrophe.
At 1:38 pm (08:08 GMT) on June 12, Air India Flight 171 departed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad for London Gatwick Airport carrying 230 passengers, 10 cabin crew and two pilots.
Approximately 40 seconds after liftoff, both engines of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner shut down while climbing. The aircraft subsequently crashed into the BJ Medical College Hostel in a densely populated suburb 1.85km (1.15 miles) from the runway.
The aircraft broke apart on impact, causing a fire that destroyed parts of five buildings. All the passengers on the plane died except one – Vishwaskumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin. Some 19 people on the ground were killed as well, and 67 were injured.
The AAIB is probing the crash, which was the most fatal aviation accident in a decade, with Boeing and US and UK experts. In a preliminary report published by the investigators on Saturday, they found the plane to have been certified airworthy, up to date with maintenance and bearing no dangerous cargo.
But the report added that a 2018 US Federal Aviation Administration guidance issued a warning of a possible flaw in the fuel-control switch system of certain Boeing aircraft, among them the Dreamliner. The report added that Air India did not check the system, and it was not required to do so. Recovery systems went into operation at the time of the crash, but partial relight of the engine took place, the report added.
