Fuel Switches Were Cut Off Before Air India Plane Crashed, Preliminary Report Says

Fuel switches were trim disconnected connected nan Air India level that crashed and killed 270 group past month soon aft nan level took off, a preliminary investigation study released Friday said.

The study by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau comes arsenic nan hose has been nether aggravated unit to reply for nan crash, which killed each but 1 rider connected nan level and 29 others connected nan ground.

Fuel cutoff switches were changed from “run” to “cutoff” to engines 1 and 2 connected nan two-engine Boeing 787-8, a type of craft known arsenic nan Dreamliner, nan study said.

“In nan cockpit sound recording, 1 of nan pilots is heard asking nan different why did he cutoff. The different aviator responded that he did not do so,” nan study reads.

The study is preliminary and a last study could return weeks. The study released Friday does not scope conclusions aliases urge actions to operators aliases manufacturers, and nan investigation is continuing.

Only 1 personification survived nan crash, British nationalist Ramesh Viswashkumar. His brother, besides connected nan plane, was killed.

In summation to nan 241 group connected nan level who died, 29 group connected nan crushed were besides killed erstwhile nan level crashed.

The London-bound Air India Flight 171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 unit members erstwhile it collapsed seconds aft takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport successful nan occidental Indian metropolis of Ahmedabad. It careened into a building wherever aesculapian students were sitting down for lunch.

After nan switches were changed to cutoff, location were attempts to retrieve and relight, nan study says.

"Engine 1’s halfway deceleration stopped, reversed and started to advancement to recovery. Engine 2 was capable to relight but could not apprehension halfway velocity deceleration and re-introduced substance many times to summation halfway velocity acceleration and recovery," nan study reads.

One aviator past issued a distress telephone — "mayday mayday mayday" — and nan level mislaid altitude and crashed, nan study says. The craft exploding upon impact.

It was nan first clang for Boeing's Dreamliner bid of aircraft, which went into commercialized work successful 2011.

The investigation by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau included members of nan U.S. National Transportation Safety Board because nan clang progressive an U.S.-made plane. Last period investigators began analyzing nan achromatic boxes aft their betterment from nan clang site.

After nan crash, India’s aviation watchdog, nan Directorate General of Civil Aviation, ordered Air India to transportation retired further attraction connected its Boeing 787-8/9 aircrafts.

But nary awesome concerns were found, nan watchdog said connected June 17 successful a statement.

A week later, nan regulator said successful a statement it had recovered aggregate cases of “repeated defects connected craft indicating ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action,” while probing respective airports, including astatine New Delhi and Mumbai, and that it had ordered for changes to beryllium made wrong 7 days.

Reuters reported that Air India’s subsidiary airline, Air India Express, was besides reprimanded by Indian authorities successful March, and is nether investigation by nan European Union’s aviation information agency for not timely changing motor parts of 1 of its Airbus aircraft.