India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation bureau has released a preliminary report on the Air India flight that crashed in June, showing the fuel to the engines was cut off.
The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport before it careened back to earth. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger.
According to the report obtained by CNN, the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, shutting down the engines.
Investigators were able to get data out of the black boxes, including 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including the crash.
The aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines’ fuel cutoff switches were “transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,” according to the report.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report reads.
Fuel was cutoff to the engines, according to the report.
Airport footage shows the Ram Air Turbine, an emergency power source on an aircraft, deployed during the plane’s initial climb after take-off, the report said. The plane started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall.
Shortly after, the switches were reversed back to where they should have been, and the engines were in the process of powering back up when the crash happened.
Investigators also noted much of the aircraft was found in normal condition. The plane’s fuel was tested and found to be of satisfactory quality and no significant bird activity is observed in the vicinity of the flight path, according to the report.
“When fuel control switches are moved from CUTOFF to RUN while the aircraft is inflight, each engines full authority dual engine control automatically manages a relight and thrust recovery sequence of ignition and fuel introduction,” the report states.
Seconds after the engines attempted to relight, one pilot called out, “MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY.” The controller called out for the plane’s callsign, but didn’t get a response and watched the plane crash in the distance.
The captain of the flight was a 56-year-old male who flew over 15,000 hours in his career. The first officer was a 32-year old male with over 3,400 flying hours.
The take-off weight for the plane was found to be within allowable limits, and there were no “Dangerous Goods” on the aircraft. Investigators found the flaps on the wings of the plane were set in the 5-degree position, which is correct for takeoff, and the landing gear lever was in the down position.
The left engine was installed on the plane on March 26 and the right hand was installed on May 1, the report said.
In addition to those on board, a number of people on the ground were killed when the plane crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel.
The Air India flight, AI171, took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India’s western state of Gujarat on June 12. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed to London Gatwick, and scheduled to land at 6:25 p.m. local time (1:25 p.m. ET).
Air India had said 242 passengers and crew members were on board. That included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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