The US flight regulator has announced the fuel control switches in Boeing aircraft are safe, after they were reported to have played a part in a fatal Air India crash in June that killed 260 passengers. The safety of the switches has become a main area of concern following the release on Friday of an interim report into the crash by investigators.
It stated that fuel to the engines of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was being shut off just seconds after take-off at Ahmedabad airport, and pointed to earlier reports by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that indicated the switches needed to be checked for safety.
In an email to the BBC, Air India’s chief cautioned against drawing “premature conclusions” after publication of the report. The disaster involving London-bound Flight 171 was one of the worst aviation incidents globally in almost a decade.
Onboard, 229 passengers and 12 cabin crew were killed, while 19 people on the ground perished when the plane crashed. One British national survived.
Fuel flow switches to the engines of the jet had been switched from “run” to the “cut-off” position, disrupting the thrust of the aircraft, the preliminary report stated, as released by the India Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB).
Inspectors cited a 2018 advisory from the FAA, which encouraged but did not require operators of Boeing aircraft to check the locking mechanism of the fuel cut-off switches to make sure they cannot be unintentionally moved.
This was not done by Air India, the AAIB said in preliminary findings. The FAA on Friday informed civil aviation authorities that it had received AAIB’s preliminary report. It said that its own 2018 bulletin “was prompted by reports that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature turned off,” but said it does not think this renders the planes unsafe.
“While the fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, is identical on different Boeing airplane models, the FAA doesn’t regard this matter as an unsafe condition that would require an Airworthiness Directive on any Boeing airplane models, such as the Model 787,” stated the authority, in an internal memo released to the BBC.
“The FAA will continue to provide pertinent information to foreign civil aviation authorities as appropriate. AAIB, after examining recovered cockpit voice recordings, said one pilot during the flight asked the other why he had shut off the fuel. The other pilot said that he did not,” the report said.
The investigators said the fuel switches had roughly switched from run to cut-off shortly after take-off. The report did not explain how the switches had switched during the flight.
