AI crash: Fuel cut off to both engines

The pilots attempted to restart both engines, and while one appeared to respond, the second engine failed to regain power.

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THE PILOTS ATTEMPTED to restart both engines, and while one appeared to respond, the second engine failed to regain power. The plane continued to lose speed and height.

One of the pilots made a 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday' distress call, but before the air traffic controllers could get a response about what had gone wrong, the plane crashed. The time between takeoff and crash was just about half a minute.

The preliminary findings, which were based on data from the cockpit voice recorder, digital flight data recorder, wreckage site inspection, and fuel sample analysis, offer the first official insight into what led to the first total hull loss of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The report did not say whether the switches were inadvertently or intentionally moved to the cutoff position. Moving the switches in-flight is extremely rare and usually done only in case of engine fire or serious malfunction. The switches are designed with a locking mechanism that makes accidental movement unlikely.

CCTV footage showed the aircraft's ram air turbine (RAT), a backup hydraulic power source, had deployed just after takeoff, another indication of engine failure. At the time, first officer Clive Kunder, 32, was piloting the aircraft, while the senior captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was monitoring the flight. Kunder had logged over 1,100 hours on the 787 and 3,400 total flying hours. Sabharwal had 15,638 hours, including more than 8,500 on the 787, and was an instructor at Air India.