this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025

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147

Engine fuel switches cut off before Air India crash that killed 260, preliminary report finds (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago by babysandpiper@sopuli.xyz to c/world@lemmy.world

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switches

Fuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.

Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades.

According to a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, moments after take-off both the switches in the cockpit that controlled fuel going to the engines had been moved to the “cut-off” position. Moving the fuel switches almost immediately cuts the engine.

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[–] Moose@moose.best 6 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

The landing gear lever is located between the 2 primary flight displays while the fuel cutoff switches were directly below the throttle. They also look and operate in different ways. The only way I could see someone accidentally confusing the two is if the pilot flew other aircraft types where some function is located in the same place as the fuel cutoff switches.

Apparently the cockpit voice recording caught one pilot asking why they shut off the fuel and the other denying it. They were also turned back on right before the crash and were found in the on position, so it doesn't appear one was trying to force it off or anything.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Apparently the cockpit voice recording caught one pilot asking why they shut off the fuel and the other denying it.

Welp.

So, yeah, sounds to me like astounding levels of incompetence from the idiot pilot.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 20 hours ago

Or someone was lying.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

so it doesn't appear one was trying to force it off or anything.

I don't think it indicates that given how the flight was already doomed at that point. The damage was done.

[–] Moose@moose.best 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It's possible it was intentional, but unless it was a terror attack from the pilot it doesn't make much sense. Since there was no manifesto or any statement I doubt that. Suicide is technically a possibility, but why take a plane full of people and some on the ground with you? I know some people lose empathy and reason when they get to that point, but it seems significantly more likely to me that the pilot was fatigued and just did the wrong thing, hanlon's razor and all that. Mistakes are more common than you would think, they're just not usually 'cut off fuel to both engines right after takeoff' bad.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

A suicide like this has happened before. It even involved the fuel being shut off.

hanlon's razor and all that

The fuel switches have been very carefully designed to take "stupidity" out of the equation.

It's going to be hard to conclude for sure that this was suicide without some form of note or other evidence we don't have yet, but really, at some point the effort it takes to come up with alternatives is going to start looking silly.

[–] Moose@moose.best 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think one of the biggest giveaways will be the voice recording and how they react to the situation. I doubt it will release publicly but it should give at least some idea to the Investigators.

And I was pretty surprised by the switches honestly, I figured they would have at least a guard and a spring loaded toggle, but it's just the spring loaded toggle. Those are used a lot for any switch you don't want moving accidentally, so it wasn't super unique or anything.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 19 hours ago

They do have guards on the sides, so it's not completely out in the open.

Hopefully politics won't get involved in the final report like it did in the EgyptAir case.