New details about the Air India crash

A preliminary report has been published regarding last month's aviation disaster in India that claimed the lives of 260 people. Reuters reported this.
The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner, en route from Ahmedabad to London, crashed just minutes after takeoff.

According to the report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau under India's Ministry of Civil Aviation, the cause of the crash was the near-simultaneous shutdown of fuel valves intended to start and stop the engines. This action suddenly cut off fuel supply to the engines, resulting in the crash.

The report states that just before the crash, one pilot in the cockpit asked the other: "Why did you cut the fuel?" To which the second pilot responded: "I didn’t do it." The report does not specify which pilot said which line.

The 56-year-old captain, Sumeet Sabharval, had more than 15,600 flight hours and had become an instructor at Air India. The co-pilot was 32-year-old Kliv Kunder with over 3,400 hours of flight experience.

Experts believe it is nearly impossible for the fuel shutoff valves to be activated accidentally. These valves are usually turned off after landing or in an emergency. It was confirmed that no such emergency was present at the time of the crash.

US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse suggested the actions might have been deliberate, asking:

"If a pilot did it — why?"

Interestingly, after the crash, the fuel valves located at the rear of the aircraft were found in the "on position" (i.e., active), indicating a brief attempt to restart the engines before impact.

The crash dealt a serious blow to Air India’s recent efforts to modernize and rebuild trust. The company, privatized by the Indian government in 2022 and taken over by Tata Group, had been working on purchasing new aircraft, improving service quality, and increasing safety.

The European Union and Indian aviation regulators have also launched a serious investigation into Air India Express due to allegations of delayed engine part replacements and document forgery.

So far, no fault has been found with Boeing or the engine manufacturer GE Aerospace. The US National Transportation Safety Board stated it had cooperated with Indian authorities in the investigation. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!