The two engines on the Air India flight shut down within one second of each other before the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed last month in Ahmedabad, India, killing at least 260 people, according to a preliminary report released Friday.
Both fuel control switches that, if pulled while in flight, cut power to the engines, transitioned from the “run” to “cutoff” settings as the plane took off, the report states. The switches then moved back to “run” and one engine was regaining thrust when the plane crashed.
In the recovered cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots can be heard asking the other why he cut off fuel to the engine. The other pilot responded that he didn’t, according to the 15-page report.
It doesn’t specify which of the two pilots asked the other about the switches. Both pilots had an adequate rest period before the flight, underwent preflight breath analyzer tests and were deemed fit to fly, the report states. The first officer was flying the plane and the captain was monitoring during takeoff.
The takeoff weight was also within the allowable limits, and there were no “dangerous goods” on the plane, according to the report. There was no significant bird activity in the flight path.
The preliminary assessment, released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, comes 30 days after the fatal crash, following guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that recommends practices for the industry.
The new information matches media reports this week that, citing anonymous sources, said that investigators were focused on the engine fuel control switches.
On June 12, the Boeing 787 crashed in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad less than a minute after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground, according to the most recent estimates from local authorities.
The Everett-built plane crashed into a medical hostel roughly 1 mile from the airport. It was the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the jet maker’s smaller widebody plane.
India’s civil aviation authority is leading the investigation, with support from the U.S. and the U.K., which had several citizens onboard the London-bound plane.
Boeing and engine maker General Electric offered to support the investigation and Air India. Both companies have been limited in what they can say as the investigation is ongoing.
The report said at this investigation stage, there are no recommended actions for Boeing Dreamliner or General Electric engine operators and manufacturers.
With few official updates from accident investigators, the aviation industry and flying public have been searching for answers about what went wrong.
Aviation experts who spoke with The Seattle Times over the last month shared a long list of possibilities and were reluctant to rule anything out, noting that the circumstances of the crash were unusual.
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