Engine fuel supply was cut just before Air India jet crash, preliminary report says

CNN India s Aircraft Accident Review bureau has disclosed a preliminary account on the Air India flight that crashed in June showing the fuel to the engines was cut off The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport before it careened back to earth Everyone on board was killed except for one visitor According to the overview obtained by CNN the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing Dreamliner had been flipped starving the engines of fuel Investigators were able to get records out of the black boxes including hours of flight details and two hours of cockpit audio including the crash The aircraft had reached an airspeed of knots when both engines fuel cutoff switches were transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of sec according to the assessment In the cockpit voice recording one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff The other pilot responded that he did not do so the overview reads Shortly after the switches were reversed back to where they should have been and the engines were in the process of powering back up when the crash happened On the the fuel cutoff switches are located between the two pilots seats straightaway behind the planes throttle levers They are protected on the sides by a metal bar and have a locking mechanism designed to prevent accidental cutoff Airport footage shows the Ram Air Turbine an urgency power source on an aircraft deployed during the plane s initial climb after take-off the overview noted The plane started to lose altitude before traveling the airport perimeter wall When fuel control switches are moved from CUTOFF to RUN while the aircraft is inflight each engines full authority dual engine control automatically manages a relight and thrust recovery sequence of ignition and fuel introduction the review states Seconds after the engines attempted to relight one pilot called out MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY The controller called out for the plane s callsign but didn t get a response and watched the plane crash in the distance The fuel switches were designed to be intentionally moved according to CNN safety analyst David Soucie who noted cases in which all fuel switches were turned off of an aircraft accidentally are extremely rare Throughout the years those switches have been improved to make sure that they cannot be accidentally moved and that they re not automatic They don t move themselves in any manner Soucie noted on Friday The captain of the flight was a -year-old male who flew over hours in his career The first officer was a -year old male with over flying hours Investigators also noted settings on equipment ascertained in the wreckage was normal for takeoff The plane s fuel was tested and discovered to be of satisfactory quality and no notable bird activity is observed in the vicinity of the flight path according to the account The take-off weight for the plane was discovered to be within allowable limits and there were no Dangerous Goods on the aircraft Investigators detected the flaps on the wings of the plane were set in the -degree position which is correct for takeoff and the landing gear lever was in the down position The left engine was installed on the plane on March and the right hand was installed on May the account mentioned The Air India flight AI took off from Ahmedabad s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India s western state of Gujarat on June The Boeing - Dreamliner was headed to London Gatwick and scheduled to land at p m local time p m ET Air India had revealed passengers and crew members were on board That included Indian nationals Britons seven Portuguese and one Canadian In addition to those on board a number of people on the ground were killed when the plane crashed into the BJ Biological College and Hospital hostel The crash resulted in fatalities total according to the review A number of the dead on the ground resulted from the plane hitting the hostel Air India acknowledged that it received the document and reported it will continue cooperating with agents in the examination Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI accident the airline posted to X on Saturday local time We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing help during this formidable time