NEW DELHI — Gas management switches for the engines of an Air India flight that crashed last month have been moved from the “run” to the “cutoff” place moments earlier than impression, ravenous each engines of gasoline, a preliminary investigation report mentioned early Saturday.
The report, issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, additionally indicated that each pilots have been confused over the change to the swap setting, which induced a lack of engine thrust shortly after takeoff.
The Air India flight — a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — crashed on June 12 and killed not less than 260 individuals, together with 19 on the bottom, within the northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad. Just one passenger survived the crash, which is considered one of India’s worst aviation disasters.
The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers — 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian — together with 12 crew members.
In line with the report, the flight lasted round 30 seconds between takeoff and crash. It mentioned that after the plane achieved its high recorded velocity, “the Engine 1 and Engine 2 gasoline cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF place one after one other” inside a second. The report didn’t say how the switches may have flipped to the cutoff place through the flight.
The motion of the gasoline management switches enable and lower gasoline circulation to the aircraft’s engines.
The switches have been flipped again into the run place, the report mentioned, however the aircraft couldn’t acquire energy rapidly sufficient to cease its descent after the plane had begun to lose altitude.
“One of many pilots transmitted “‘MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY’,” the report mentioned.
It additionally indicated confusion within the cockpit moments earlier than the crash.
Within the flight’s remaining second, one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the opposite why he lower off the gasoline. “The opposite pilot responded that he didn’t achieve this,” the report mentioned.
The preliminary report didn’t advocate any actions to the Boeing.
Air India in an announcement mentioned it’s absolutely cooperating with authorities investigating the crash.
“Air India is working carefully with stakeholders, together with regulators. We proceed to totally cooperate with the AAIB and different authorities as their investigation progresses,” it mentioned.
The aircraft’s black containers — mixed cockpit voice recorders and flight knowledge recorders — have been recovered within the days following the crash and later downloaded in India.
Indian authorities had additionally ordered deeper checks of Air India’s whole fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner to stop future incidents. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet.