The disaster of Air India aircraft 171 and its final minutes

India’s New Delhi An initial inquiry into the tragedy has shown that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches in the cockpit inexplicably switched from the “run” to the “cutoff” position just before a deadly Air India crash on June 12.

The engines are quite instantly cut off upon flipping to cutoff. According to the investigation’s findings, which was released early on Saturday by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), both engines shut down in less than a second, causing an instantaneous loss of altitude.

The investigation does not assign blame for the accident of Air India Flight 171, which was headed for London’s Gatwick Airport, nor does it explain why the switches moved.

Instead, the mystery surrounding the cause of the disaster seems to have been exacerbated by the fresh information that came to light as a result of the study, including voice recordings from the cockpit.

This is what we know about the last minute before the jet crashed and what the report discovered.

What happened on June 12?

On the afternoon of June 12, the Dreamliner, carrying 230 passengers, 10 cabin staff, and 2 pilots, sailed from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick at 13:38 [08:08 GMT].

The plane lost both of its engines on the first ascent less than 40 seconds later.

In the first occurrence of this type involving a 787 Dreamliner, the aircraft struck the BJ Medical College dormitories and surrounding buildings in a heavily populated metropolitan suburb, less than a nautical mile (about 1.85 kilometers) from the runway.

On impact, the plane broke apart, starting a fire that partially damaged five buildings. The plane’s passengers were all murdered, except for one. Vishwaskumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian descent, was the only person who survived.

Some 19 people on the ground were also killed and 67 were injured.

What has the investigation revealed?

The investigation into the deadliest aircraft accident in a decade is being led by the AAIB, an institution under India’s Ministry of Civil aircraft. Additionally, Boeing experts and participants from the United States and the United Kingdom join the probe.

The aircraft was judged airworthy based on the preliminary report, and its Airworthiness Review Certificate is good until May 2026. There were no hazardous materials on board, and routine maintenance had been completed.

Investigators did, however, take note of a prior US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report from December 2018 that raised concerns about a possible defect in the aircraft’s fuel-control switch system, namely the locking feature’s potential disengagement.

According to the investigation on the Air India tragedy, owners of Boeing 737 aircraft had reported that fuel-control switches had been fitted with their locking mechanisms removed, which prompted the advisory.

Since compliance was not required, Air India informed the investigators that no inspection had been conducted in response to this SAIB.

The aircraft’s throttle control module was changed in 2019 and 2023, according to the report. However, the investigation noted that no failures pertaining to the fuel-control switch had been documented since 2023, and these replacements had nothing to do with it.

Key systems such as the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) and Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) were engaged and attempted automatic recovery, but only partial engine relight was achieved before the aircraft crashed.