Indian investigators are preparing to say in a final report that Air India Flight 171 crashed because a pilot turned off the plane’s fuel switch in an “almost certainly” deliberate act, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Wednesday, citing sources in Western aviation agencies.
Wreckage of the crashed Air India plane is being picked up by a crane in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (PTI)The findings were based on what the report said was a lack of technical error and an analysis of cleared cockpit voice recordings that investigators said identified which pilot moved the switches.
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India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and Civil Aviation Ministry did not respond to HT’s requests for comment on the report.
Flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport on June 12, killing 260 people – 241 of 242 on board and 19 on the ground when the plane crashed into a medical student hostel 32 seconds after losing thrust from two engines.
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While it is not yet clear whether the final report will include a detailed description of how the switches were deliberately turned off or are clearly to blame, the prime suspect is the plane’s commander, Sumit Sabharwal, who died in the crash, Korea reports.
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The Indian Pilots Association and Sabharwal’s family have criticized what they say is a concerted effort to shift blame for the tragedy and called for further investigations into the aircraft manufacturer, airline and other factors.
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The new newspaper said a conclusion pointing to the captain marked a “desired turning point” for US experts to help investigate, after weeks of clashes with their Indian counterparts who refused to acknowledge a humanitarian role in the tragedy.
In December, the AAIB’s Indian investigators traveled to Washington where they reanalyzed the plane’s black box data at the National Transportation Safety Board’s laboratory, focusing specifically on cleared cabin audio recordings, sources told Corriere.
Audio analysis clarified which pilot took the fatal action and ruled out a mistake, according to the report.
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New Delhi’s apparent shift in stance stems from US pressure and Western threats to reassess security levels for Indian airlines, which risks tarnishing the image of a country that invests heavily in aviation, tourism and trade, sources said.
“Acknowledging that one of the pilots who shot down the plane is increasingly being regarded as an unsustainable sacrifice,” a source told the newspaper.
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U.S. experts conducting simulator tests of the Boeing 787 have never found a scenario in which the failure caused both engines to shut down, leaving human intervention — intentional or accidental — as the only plausible explanation, Corriere reported.
Western assessments based on flight data recorders pointed to Savarwal, who was observing while piloting First Officer Clive Kunder, the newspaper said. The engines shut down in sequence – first the left engine, where the captain sits, then the right. According to reports, in the final seconds, the first officer’s control yoke was positioned to regain altitude while the captain remained stationary.
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Initial reports published a month after the accident showed that the engines shut down almost simultaneously after the fuel switches were moved from “run” to “cutoff”. The cockpit voice recorder asks a pilot “Why did you turn off the engine?” Another replied “It wasn’t me”, although the report did not identify what the pilot said.
Final decisions will undergo a “political” assessment, the sources told Corriere on condition of anonymity. The final document may adopt a more cautious version to avoid strong national debate, the newspaper said.
NTSB spokesman Peter C. Knudson referred the courier to the Indian AAIB. Indian authorities – including the AAIB, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation – did not respond to newspaper queries.
