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‘I Didn't Cut Off Fuel’: AI-171 Crash Initial Report Released, Reveals Cockpit Exchange

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India

Saturday, July 12


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Air India-171 crash preliminary report was put out on Saturday, revealing sequence of events that led to the tragic incident in which all but one onboard were killed on June 12.

Air India crash initial report points to dual engine shutdown
Air India crash initial report points to dual engine shutdown

The preliminary report of the probe into the Air India-171 crash was made public by the government on Saturday, revealing the sequence of events that took place inside the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which went down seconds after take-off from the Ahmedabad Airport on June 12 and killed 241 on board.

The report said that its sole objective is “not to apportion blame or liability" but the prevention of accidents and incidents in the future.

Air India-171 Crash Initial Report Details

In the 15-page initial report published by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the data recovered from the cockpit voice recording of the pilots was mentioned, which highlighted a part of the conversation that took place seconds before the crash.

Dual-engine shutdown within seconds of the plane being airborne was pointed to be the cause of the crash.

The aircraft reached its maximum airspeed of 180 knots IAS and immediately thereafter, both engines’ “fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of one second", the report said.

One of the pilots asked the other, “Why did you cut off?", to which the other is heard responding, “I did not do so".

Both engines began to slow down from their high as the fuel supply was cut off.

“RUN" means the engines of the plane are getting fuel, and “CUTOFF" means the fuel has been cut off.

The pilots made an immediate attempt to restore power and switched the fuel controls back to ‘Run’. As the prompts were made, the engine control system attempted to put the engines back on, restarting Engine 1. However, Engine 2 did not stabilise.

“Engine 2 was able to relight but could not arrest core speed deceleration and re-introduced fuel repeatedly to increase core speed acceleration and recovery," the report said.

The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was immediately deployed, which indicated a power failure in the aircraft.

Soon after this, one of the pilots gave “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" call to the ATC. The ATC responded to the call sign, but did not get any response from the plane and “observed the aircraft crashing outside the airport boundary", the report said, detailing the tragic sequence of events.

‘It’s Preliminary Report, Govt Will Wait For Full Report’: Sources

The report, however, clarified right at the beginning that the document has been prepared based on the “preliminary facts and evidence collected during the investigation". “The information is preliminary and subject to change," it said.

The government sources stressed that this is only a preliminary report, and the government will wait for the full report to come out.

“The full report is expected in the next couple of months. Further investigation has been carried on," sources said.

The investigating team recently visited Ahmedabad this week. More evidence needs to be corroborated before the final report is published, they added.

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