Air India Boeing 787 crash report says fuel switches cut off : NPR
The members of the Indian army engineering team are preparing to remove the wreckage from a Dreamliner Boeing 787 Air India plane, bound for Gatwick Airport in London, which crashed during the takeoff of an airport in Ahmedabad, India on June 14, 2025.
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BASIT ZARGAR / AFP via Getty
A pair of switches who control the fuel supply of the engines were set for “cut” a few moments before the accident of the Air India 171 flight, according to a preliminary report From the Office of Air Accident Investigation in India released early Saturday in India.
In total, 260 people were killed when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after taking off Ahmedabad last month.
Indian investigators determined that the jet had been properly configured and removed normally. But three seconds after takeoff, the fuel switches from the engines were cut. We don’t know why.
According to the report, the data from the flight recorders show that the two fuel control switches have been from the “run” to “cut” position shortly after takeoff. In the recording of the voice of the cockpit, one of the pilots can be heard asking the other “why he cut”, says the report, while “the other pilot replied that he did not do it”.
A few moments later, the report indicates, the fuel switches were returned to the “run” position. But at that time, the plane had started to lose the push and the altitude. The two engines seemed to turn on, according to the investigators, but only one of them was able to start generating a push.
The report does not draw other conclusions on the reasons why the switches have been overthrown, but this suggests that investigators focus on the actions of the plane pilots. The report has no evidence of mechanical failures or a possible strike of birds, which could have incapacity the two engines at the same time.
Parents and neighbors of Akash Patni, a 14 -year -old tea seller who died in an Air India Boeing 787 air accident, cry while waiting for the body to his residence on June 15, 2025 in Ahmedabad, India. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board. The plane crashed on June 12, 2025, after the pilot launched a Mayday call for air traffic control.
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Images Ritesh Shukla / Getty
The first officer was the flying pilot at the time of the accident, according to the investigators. The report suggests that there was nothing ordinary in its takeoff – until the fuel control switches are reversed.
There were 242 passengers and crew on board the flight in London when he crashed in a medical college and caught fire. Only a passenger – Sitting in the seat 11a – was able to move away from the rubble on fire. Nineteen people died on the ground.
It was the very first shell loss of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, who entered service in 2011.
