Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switches
Fuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.
Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades.
According to a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, moments after take-off both the switches in the cockpit that controlled fuel going to the engines had been moved to the “cut-off” position. Moving the fuel switches almost immediately cuts the engine.
Yeah thats… kind of baffling.
I know that in these kinds of situations, it can come down to a combination of incompetence/being overworked, and also miscommunication or blind deference to a nonsensical command.
I am spitballing here, I don’t know the internal layout of an '87 nor its exact take off procedures…
Maybe one of them somehow thought they were raising the landing gear?
I can’t imagine it would be any kind of standard to like… significantly adjust flaps mere seconds after rotation…
The thing was flying (stalling) with its landing gear down the whole time, right? Never retracted up?
Is it not fairly routine to start retracting the gear soon after rotation?
…
I guess its also possible its some kind of intentional sabotage, but that would seem to either require a conspiracy or at least one of the pilots being suicidal?
Not impossible, but I am not aware of any evidence toward either of those.