Air India crash report shows pilot confusion over engine switch movement
Allison Lampert, Aditya Kalra and Dan Catchpole
New Delhi (Reuters) -A preliminary report described the confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India Jetliner collapsed, and last month killed 260 people, after the engine’s fuel cutting switches were almost reversed at the same time, the fuel engines remained hungry.
According to the world’s most deadly aviation accident report on Saturday, published by Indian accident inspectors on Saturday, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a London city of Ahmedabad, India, began to push and sink immediately.
The Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Office (AAIB), shortly after the departure, the report on the June 12 accident, while giving rise to new questions about the position of critical engine fuel cutting switches, Boeing and motor manufacturer GE does not have a significant responsibility for the accident.
The accident is a challenge for Tata Group’s ambitious campaign to restore Air India’s reputation after receiving the carrier from the government in 2022.
Immediately after the aircraft is removed from the ground, CCTV images show a spare energy source called a RAM air turbine that shows the loss of power from engines.
At the last moment of the flight, a pilot was heard in the cockpit sound recorder, asked the other why he had cut fuel. “The other pilot said he didn’t do it.” He said.
He did not determine which explanations were made by the captain of the flight and which of them had transmitted “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” just before the accident.
The Air India plane’s command pilot was 56 -year -old Sumeet Sabharwal with a total flight experience of 15,638 hours and was also Air India instructor, according to the Indian government. The joint pilot 32 -year -old Clive Kunder had a total of 3,403 hours of experience.
The fuel switches turned almost after the departure from running to cutting almost at the same time. The preliminary report did not tell you how to return the switches to the cutting position during the flight.
Experts, a pilot can not accidentally move fuel switches, he said.
“If they moved because of a pilot, why?” He asked the US aviation security expert Anthony Brickhouse.
According to US aviation expert John Nence, he said that the switches were reversed for a second. He added that a pilot would normally never close the keys on the flight, especially when the plane starts to climb.
To cut, the turning almost cuts the engines. Mostly a plane is used to close the motors after a plane arrives in some emergencies such as engine fire and engine fire. The report does not indicate that there is any emergency requiring engine cutting.
In the collapse zone, both fuel keys were found in the running position and both engines had indicators relayed before the low altitude accident, but the report published on Saturday (Friday 2000 GMT) at 01:30.
Air India accepted the report in a statement. The carrier said he cooperated with the Indian authorities, but rejected more comments.
The US National Transportation Security Council thanked the Indian officials for their collaborations and said in a report that the Boeing 787 Jets or GE engines are not a proposed process aimed at operators.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said that the priority is to follow the facts they have led and that it has committed to address the risks determined throughout the process.
Boeing said he continued to support the investigation and his customer Air India. Ge Aerospace did not respond immediately to the request for comments.
Collision
AAIB, an office under India’s Civil Aviation Ministry, takes the investigation to an accident, killing all of 242 people on board and one of the other 19 people.
Most air accidents arise from many factors with a preliminary report 30 days after the accident and a final report expected within a year.
The black boxes of the aircraft, combined cockpit audio recorders and flight data recorders were rescued in the following days and then downloaded in India.
Black boxes provide significant data such as altitude, air speed and latest pilot conversations that help narrow the possible causes of impact.
Air India has been under intense examination since the accident.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Reuters’ carrier’s carrier’s Airbus A320’nin time to change and compatibility to change the falsified records to change the instruction of the Budget Air Air Air India Express plan to investigate, he said.
India’s aviation observer warned Air India for violating the rules to fly three Airbus planes with delayed controls on the escape slides, and warned it about “serious violations” of pilot mission timing in June.
India makes an explosion in aviation to support wider development goals, and the new Delhi says that India wants to be a global aviation center that creates business along the Dubai lines, which currently manages most of the country’s international traffic.
(Hritam Mukherler and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru and Aditya Kalra in the New Delhi and Abhijith Ganapavaram and Montreal in Allison Lampert, David Shepardson in Washington, Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago and Jamie Freed by Jamie Freed;
