Air India Boeing 787 crash preliminary report released

by · The Seattle Times

The two engines on the Air India flight shut down within one second of each other before the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed last month in Ahmedabad, India, killing at least 260 people, according to a preliminary report released Friday.

Both engine fuel control switches that, if pulled while in flight, cut power to the engines, transitioned from the “run” to “cutoff” settings as the plane took off, according to the report. That deprived the engines of fuel, preventing the plane from being able to lift off.

In the recovered cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off fuel to the engine. The other pilot responded that he didn’t, according to the 15-page report. Soon after the switches were turned back to “run” and one engine began regaining thrust, but it wasn’t enough to stop the plane from crashing.

The Everett-built Boeing 787 then crashed in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad less than a minute after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground, according to the most recent estimates from local authorities. 

The preliminary report, released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, comes about a month after the fatal crash, following guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that recommends practices for the industry. 

India’s civil aviation authority is leading the investigation, with support from the U.S. and the U.K., which had several citizens on board the London-bound plane.

Air India plane crash
On June 12, a Boeing 787 crashed in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad less than a minute after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground.

Sources: Esri, The Associated Press, The New York Times, Reuters (Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)

The report said at this investigation stage, there are no recommended actions for Boeing, which manufactures the Dreamliner, or General Electric, the engine maker, or their operators.

Two aviation experts, however, cautioned Friday against immediately pointing to pilot error.

“I don’t think we know that yet. It could be a system failure that causes this to happen,” said Joe Jacobsen, a retired Federal Aviation Administration safety engineer. “We have evidence saying ‘he didn’t do so.’ To me if you take that on face value, then it’s a system failure and not a pilot action.”

The switches require a two-step process to go back and forth between the settings to prevent the flight crew from accidentally cutting power to the engines. The switch makes a clicking sound when activated, but there is no mention of such a sound in the preliminary report. That’s critical to finding out whether one of the pilots did switch the settings, said Mike Dostert, a former FAA engineer.

The report doesn’t specify which of the two pilots asked the other about the switches. Both pilots had an adequate rest period before the flight, underwent preflight breath analyzer tests and were deemed fit to fly, according to the report. The first officer was flying the plane and the captain was monitoring during takeoff.

The takeoff weight was within the allowable limits, and there were no “dangerous goods” on the plane, according to the report. There was no significant bird activity in the flight path.

Boeing and General Electric offered to support the investigation and Air India. Both companies have been limited in what they can say as the investigation is ongoing. 

“Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected on the ground in Ahmedabad. We continue to support the investigation and our customer,” Boeing said in a statement Friday.

The plane crashed into a medical hostel roughly 1 mile from the airport. It was the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the jetmaker’s smaller widebody plane. 

With few official updates from accident investigators, the aviation industry and flying public have been searching for answers about what went wrong. 

The new information matches media reports this week that, citing anonymous sources, said that investigators were focused on the engine fuel control switches.

Aviation experts who spoke with The Seattle Times over the last month shared a long list of possibilities and were reluctant to rule anything out, noting that the circumstances of the crash were unusual.