Fuel to engines cut off before Air India Boeing 787 crash, says report

Fuel to both engines of the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that took off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad city last month was cut off prior to its crash shortly after takeoff, an investigation into the disaster has found.

Both engines shut down within seconds after takeoff as the fuel switches in the cockpit “transitioned from ‘run’ to ‘cutoff’ position one after another” with a time gap of one second, according to the preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” said the report released on Friday.

The aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall, it said.

It had reached an airspeed of 180 knots.

The pilots tried to restart the engines, but only one engine partially recovered.

Engine 1’s core deceleration stopped, reversed, and started to progress to recovery while Engine 2 was able to relight but could not arrest core speed deceleration, the report said.

One of the pilots transmitted “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” just before the crash.

Sumeet Sabharwal captained the flight. His co-pilot was First Officer Clive Kunder.

Airport CCTV footage showed the Ram Air Turbine emergency power source on the plane deployed during the initial climb immediately after takeoff, the probe agency said.

“At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to Boeing 787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers,” it said.

“Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses,” the airline said.

“Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB,’ it added.

On June 12, the Air India flight AI171 carrying 242 people, including 12 crew members, crashed into a BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel in a populated area, killing all aboard except one.

The death toll, including those who were killed on the ground, was 260.

The flight was bound for London’s Gatwick airport.

- Bernama

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