An exclusive cockpit voice recording from the tragic Air India flight that plummeted last month has revealed that the captain abruptly ceased fuel supply to the engines mere moments after takeoff, according to a Wednesday report by The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper, citing insiders privy to the preliminary findings of the US-led investigation into the June 12 disaster in Ahmedabad that claimed 260 lives, stated that the captain's actions are now under intense scrutiny.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with First Officer Clive Kunder at the controls, witnessed the first officer quizzing the captain almost instantly after taking flight about his decision to switch the fuel controls to the "cutoff" position. The pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, boasting a total of 15,638 flying hours, and First Officer Kunder, with 3,403 hours under his belt.
Requests for comment on the Wall Street Journal report from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air India, and two unions representing Indian pilots went unanswered promptly. Similarly, Boeing declined to provide any remarks.
A preliminary report released by India's AAIB on Saturday noted that the fuel switches flipped from "run" to "cutoff" with a one-second gap just post-takeoff, albeit without specifying who initiated the change. Closed-circuit TV footage captured an ominous moment shortly after the aircraft left the ground – the deployment of a ram air turbine, serving as a backup energy source, indicating a loss of engine power.
The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot inquiring why the other had cut off the fuel. "The other pilot denied any such action," the report revealed.
With the engines starved of fuel, the London-bound aircraft began to lose thrust. Having ascended to a height of 650 feet, it started descending. Though the fuel switches for both engines were switched back to "run," automatically attempting to restart the engines, the plane was already too low and too slow to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance informed Reuters.
The aircraft clipped trees and a chimney before crashing into a building on a nearby medical college campus in a fiery blaze, claiming 19 lives on the ground and 241 of the 242 souls aboard the 787.
In an internal memo dated Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson affirmed that the preliminary report hadn't identified any mechanical or maintenance faults and assured that all required maintenance had been diligently performed. Notably, the AAIB's preliminary report didn't propose any safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE.
Post-report release, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications asserting the safety of the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes, as evidenced by a document reviewed by Reuters and corroborated by four sources familiar with the matter.
Circumstantial evidence increasingly suggests that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, as per Nance, given the absence of any other plausible explanation consistent with the available information till date. However, he emphasized that investigators "still have to delve into all factors" and eliminate other potential contributors, a process that would necessitate time. Most air crashes are multifaceted, and international rules mandate a final report within a year of an accident.
The Air India crash has reignited discussions about installing flight deck cameras, or cockpit image recorders, on airliners. Nance opined that such video footage of the cockpit during the Air India flight would have immensely benefited the investigators.
Following the crash, Air India has faced heightened scrutiny from other quarters too. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced this month its intention to probe Air India Express, after Reuters reported the carrier's failure to comply with a directive to promptly replace engine parts of an Airbus A320 and falsifying records to show adherence.
