Relatives of Air India victims break silence on new report that explains cause of the tragic crash that killed 260 people
The cause of the Air India crash has been determined by a preliminary report, and the final conversation between the pilots has been revealed.
The preliminary report found that the fuel being cut off to the engines caused the Air India plane crash, which claimed the lives of 260 people.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner rapidly decelerated in the air on June 12 and then crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad, India, at 1.38pm (local time) 30 seconds after takeoff.
The flight had 242 passengers and crew on board and all died except 40-year-old British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who miraculously walked free from the explosion.
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On the ground, 19 people died after the plane crashed into the hostel, leaving devastation in its wake and a call for answers by loved ones of those who perished.
Many reasons for the crash have been speculated, and what could have caused the jet to have crashed within 30 seconds of taking off.
But now a cockpit recording has revealed to investigators that a disagreement between the two pilots took place.
The report, which was released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on July 11, found that the two men had been in a conversation about who had switched off the fuel supplies to the engines.
While it is not known who is speaking to who, the recording found that one of the pilots asked the other why they ‘did the cut off’ to the engines, and they denied doing so.
The report confirmed that Air India Flight 171 had reached a maximum airspeed of 180 knots when the fuel supply to both engines were cut off within a second of each other.
While they were then turned back on, at the time of the crash, one of the engines was recovering while the other had not yet managed to do so.
When the report was released, Imtiyaz Ali, who lost his brother, sister-in-law, and their two young children said ‘reads like a product description’.
"Other than the pilots' final conversation, there's nothing in it that really points to what caused the crash."
He said: "This matters to us. We want to know exactly what happened. It won't change anything for us now, we continue grieving - just as we have since that day.
"But at least we'll have some answers.”
The report read: "The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS [indicated airspeed] at about 08:08:42 UTC [Coordinated Universal Time - which India Standard Time is five-and-a-half hours ahead of] and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec.
"The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off."
Experts have weighed in that pilots cut the fuel supply when the plane lands and usually only cut the supply in the air if there is an emergency, for instance, a fire in the engines.
However, the report does not indicate there was any emergency that required the pilots to cut the fuel supply, and it also doesn’t conclude how the switches moved to that position.
Whether it was the plane’s doing or a pilot’s doing.
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the US's NTSB, told the BBC: "The finding is very disturbing - that a pilot has shut off the fuel switch within seconds of flying."
"There's likely much more on the cockpit voice recorder than what's been shared. A lone remark like 'why did you cut off the switches' isn't enough," he said.
"The new details suggest someone in the cockpit shut those valves. The question is, who, and why? Both switches were turned off and then restarted within seconds.
"The voice recorder will reveal more: was the flying pilot trying to restart the engines, or the monitoring one?"
Topics: Travel, World News, Air India, India
Britt Jones