Air India Report Confirms Fuel Cutoff

The preliminary report into the crash of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad last month says the plane came down after fuel was cut to both engines seconds after takeoff. As we reported earlier, leaked reports said the investigation was focused on the fuel cutoff switches. India’s Air Accidents Investigations Branch said in the report that the switch controlling fuel flow to the left engine was moved to the “cutoff” position four seconds after the wheels left the runway and the switch for the right engine followed one second later. Almost immediately, one pilot asked the other why he had moved the switches but the second pilot said he did not move them. The switches are immediately below the thrust levers and must be lifted before they will move to the cutoff position.

About eight seconds later, someone restored both switches to their correct position but by then the plane was descending and while the engines appear to have automatically relit, they did not produce significant thrust. The ram air turbine deployed about five seconds after the fuel was cut off. A pilot issued a Mayday mentioning a lack of thrust and the recording ended six seconds later. The plane crashed into the campus of a medical school a few seconds later, killing 19 people on the ground. All except one of the 242 people onboard was killed. A British passenger walked away from the wreckage with serious injuries. The lack of any kind of repair or defect advisory from Boeing or engine maker GE suggested mechanical faults were not part of the investigation.