Air India captain's actions 'now focus of crash investigation'

Air India has said it found "no issues" with fuel switches on its other Boeing aircraft after the crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators had turned their attention to the actions of the plane's captain.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

A preliminary report into the incident released last week found that the switches which controlled fuel going into the engines had been turned off "one after another" just after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Ahmedabad airport.

It meant the plane's two engines were starved of fuel, causing them to shut down. Moments later, the London-bound plane lost altitude and crashed, killing 241 people on board and 19 people on the ground.

The preliminary report by India's aviation authority made no recommendations of action for Boeing. However, after its release, Air India ordered the locking mechanisms of all fuel control switches - designed to prevent them from being accidentally turned off in flight - on its Boeing planes to be examined as a precautionary measure.

Yesterday an official from Air India said: "Inspections have been completed and no issues were found."