AI crash linked to fuel cut-off

ACCORDING TO THE PRELIMINARY REPORT BY AAIB

- VINAY KUMAR

A preliminary report on the June 12 crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner aircraft in Ahmedabad reveals that fuel supply to both engines was cut off immediately after take-off within one second of each other, leading to a loss of thrust and crash of the aircraft.

According to the report released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on July 11, the fuel switches of Boeing 787-8 aircraft transitioned from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' within one second of each other that led to a loss of thrust. Unable to gain height, the aircraft crashed in the Meghani Nagar area, killing 260 people, including 19 on the ground, in what was the worst aviation disaster involving an Indian airline in four decades.

The sole survivor from among the 242 onboard passengers and the crew was a British-Indian man seated in row 11A. This was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 since its commercial debut in 2011.

The 15-page preliminary probe report by the AAIB points to a series of possibilities and also raises multiple questions on what transpired inside the doomed flight.

The report says that in the cockpit voice recording, one unidentified pilot asked the other why he had cut off the fuel, which the other denied.

On June 12, the London-bound Dreamliner began to lose thrust almost immediately after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport and ploughed into a medical college hostel.

According to a chronology laid out in the report by AAIB, both fuel control switches - which are used to turn the engines off - were moved to the cutoff position almost immediately after takeoff. The report however did not say how this happened or who did it.

Soon after a RAT pump was deployed to supply hydraulic power as both engines fell below minimum idle rate. About 10 seconds later, Engine 1 fuel cutoff switch moved to its so-called RUN position, followed by Engine 2 four seconds later.