Air India crash report prompts safety checks

Aviation regulators in India and South Korea on Monday ordered airlines to inspect the fuel switches on Boeing 737 and 787 aircraft models. Some airlines conducted their own independent reviews, including Singapore Airlines. A preliminary assessment of the June crash of Air India Flight AI171 determined the fuel supply to both engines cut off seconds after takeoff. The flight bound for London from the city of Ahmedabad lost altitude less than a minute after lifting off and crashed into a residential area, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 more on the ground. A longer report investigating the accident is pending, and the preliminary report did not draw final conclusions about what caused the incident or who should be held responsible.

What else did the report find? The review included transcripts from the cockpit voice recorder in which one pilot asked the other why he had cut off fuel, to which the other pilot said he had not. Data from the flight clearly showed fuel supply to both engines was switched off during the flight. The switches were turned back on seconds later, but the plane was not able to regain enough power to avoid the crash. The report did not find any mechanical or design flaws. While some experts have suggested pilot error could have contributed to the incident, the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association defended the pilots and criticized speculation that one of them intentionally crashed the aircraft.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing issued notifications that the switches are safe, according to internal memos obtained by Reuters. The fuel switches were designed with guards to prevent accidental flips, though the report referenced a 2018 FAA bulletin that recommended airlines inspect the switches. According to the report, Air India did not carry out the inspection, but the plane’s throttle control module was replaced in 2019 and in 2023. Air India acknowledged the report and said it was cooperating with the investigation.

Dig deeper: Read my report about the crash last month.