New Details In Air India Crash Probe Shift Focus To Plane’s Captain, Reuters Reports Citing WSJ

A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicated that the captain turned off the switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane’s engines, Reuters reported, citing the Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.

As per Reuters, The Wall Street Journal report cited people familiar with US officials’ early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the crash, which killed 260 people.

The recording suggested that the first officer, who was flying the Boeing aircraft, opened the new tab 787 Dreamliner, asked the other captain, who was more experienced, why he moved the switches to the “cutoff” position after it climbed off the runway, the report said.

The first officer expressed surprise and then panicked, while the captain seemed to remain calm, Reuters reported, citing WSJ.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Boeing and Air India have not yet responded to the report.

The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.

A preliminary report released last week by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before the June 12 crash, and raised fresh questions over the position of the critical engine fuel cutoff switches.

Meanwhile, Air India on Wednesday announced the successful completion of precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) across its fleet of Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

According to a communication sent to pilots, no issues were found during the checks.

“Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft. The inspections have been completed, and no issues were found,” the airline informed its flight crew.

The inspections were conducted in compliance with a directive issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday, July 14.

Air India further confirmed that all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft have also undergone Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacements as part of Boeing’s prescribed maintenance schedule. The Fuel Control Switch is an integrated part of the TCM. (ANI)