aviation

Exactly 30 days after the Air India 171 accident, and just in time to meet the ICAO deadline, India released the preliminary investigation report into the crash.

It confirms the intel from earlier this week that both fuel switches were digitally recorded to have been moved to the CUTOFF position within a second of each other, and three seconds after rotation, which caused both engines to spool down and stop producing thrust, while the ram air turbine auto-deployed to provide minimal electrical power and hydraulics.

One of the pilots is heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking his colleague why he cut off the fuel, which the other denies doing. Both fuel switches are then recorded to be set back to the RUN position ten seconds after CUTOFF, which was too late for the engines to spool back up and resume delivering enough thrust to avoid impact.

All others configuration settings (flaps at 5, throttle at takeoff thrust, reverse levers stowed, etc) were found to be in their standard and expected position. The only exception was the landing gear that was still extended, but this unsurprising because cannot be retracted without hydraulics from the engines. The primary cause of the accident is, clearly, insufficient thrust due to fuel starvation in both engines.

Now the attention will shift to understanding how and why the fuel switches were moved to CUTOFF.

An accidental flipping of the switches is unlikely (they each need to be lifted, pulled back, and set down — a so-called “locking feature” to prevent unwanted action). However, there was a 2018 FAA airworthiness bulletin calling for the inspection of the exact same switches fitted on the Boeing 737, which had been found installed without the locking feature in some instances. There’s no indication yet that this may have also been the case on the B787.

Malicious intent from someone in the cockpit (either pilot, or an observer in the jump seat) will now be scrutinized as being the most plausible cause.

Analysis will also be required into whether the fuel switches could have turned off electronically by themselves, and whether this would have been recorded just the same way by the flight data recorder as a physical cutoff. Despite them being physical switches, they are electronic interfaces that are not mechanically linked to the fuel lines, and the full authority digital engine control (FADEC) software does control them.

Link to the preliminary report (see p. 14 in particular): https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/3e6e572bb0cd57e7/8d66090a-full.pdf

In response to the recent Air India 171 preliminary accident report, which referred to a 2018 service bulletin regarding the fuel switch locks on some Boeing 737s, the FAA and Boeing have now confirmed to airlines that the fuel switch locks are safe on the B787. It follows that the fateful flipping of the fuel switches would have had to be deliberate.

In response to the recent Air India 171 preliminary accident report, which referred to a 2018 service bulletin regarding the fuel switch locks on some Boeing 737s, the FAA and Boeing have now confirmed to airlines that the fuel switch locks are safe on the B787. It follows that the fateful flipping of the fuel switches would have had to be deliberate.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/amid-air-india-probe-us-faa-boeing-notify-fuel-switch-locks-are-safe-document-2025-07-13/

Thanks, as always, for the analysis!

Interesting, if expected, response from a couple of pilots associations in India: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/14/no-basis-pilot-groups-reject-claims-of-human-error-in-air-india-crash

“There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage,” it said in a statement. “It is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved.

“To casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession.”

At the same time, Boeing's track record has been so poor of late that it's not a leap to speculate on something being wrong with the plane.

Regardless, speculation is what fills the gaps left by incomplete disclosures. And, if ALPA India is correct that no "suitable qualified personnel" are not involved in the investigation, that only makes things worse.

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Just reading about the ANA dreamliner flight to Osaka in 2019 that had one of its fuel switches mistakenly switched to CUTOFF because the software thought the plane was on the ground. 

And WSJ now reporting that there is evidence to suggest it was the captain that moved the switch. 

Something out there for every conspiracist...

Union’s gonna do union things, but the AAIB prelim report doesn’t mention pilot suicide or human error. It just says the fuel switches were recorded to have been moved to the CUTOFF position three seconds after rotation. That’s a fact determined from the FDR.

Whether the pilot, copilot, or a third person present as a jumpseater did this, and whether they did this deliberately or accidentally, or whether a glitch electronically cut off the fuel, the report doesn’t speculate on. Hopefully the final report will fill in all the blanks.

Also, the point of an accident report is not to apportion blame but to identify the causal factors so they can be prevented in the future, in the interest of safety only. It’s separate from any criminal investigation. The pilots union knows that but is playing the PR game here

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Only rumors so far. Yes, AAIB would know from having listened to the CVR. They just haven’t disclosed yet. Probably better that way, to avoid conspo theories

was there a jumpseater? surely it would have been on the manifest?

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agree, it's not a button you'd push during normal operation unless startup/shutdown or in an emergency.

I think the more apt analogy is, have you ever reached out and physically pressed the power button on your computer when trying to push to GitHub?

And then done it again one second later?

When I'm coding, i reflexively click the "git" tab, then "Push to Github" in Cursor. Sometimes I forget where I am and hit "Git" several times not realizing I'm already in that tab and confusing it for the Push button. It sometimes takes me 10 seconds to figure out.

I wonder if the same thing could have happened here

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It demonstrates what we knew from the start, which is the switches’ locking feature that Boeing and the FAA now just said would have been working normally on that flight.

A final confirmation would be to hear that distinctive click on the CVR to confirm the physical action on those switches ~3 seconds after rotation

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It increasingly looks like that, unfortunately

Someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane?

There is nothing more powerful in this world than words.

Yes, by the captain, the first officer, or whoever else was in the cockpit at that time (e.g., a possible jumpseater).

Fuel cutoff switches are indeed necessary in case of a fire (and also to fully shutdown the engine after arrival).

At least on Airbus aircraft, the throttle must be set to idle before the fuel can be cutoff, which makes more design sense IMHO

So, flipped immediately after launch by either pilot or co-pilot? Why is a fuel cut off switch necessary? Is this in the event of a fire in an engine?

https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/air-india-crash-senior-pilot-eab72db5

If true, it was a murder-suicide by the captain, putting the issue of pilot mental health in the spotlight again.

The fuel cutoff gated switches on the 787 remind me of the thrust reverser arming switches on Bombardier products such as CRJ200. After takeoff it’s part of the flow to shut them off.

SPECULATION: Maybe a new FO transitioned from a plane with such a flow and the muscle memory caused him/her to flip these.

Let the media set narrative first till the truth comes out.. impression matters today.

Unfortunately, as I suspected, this was done on purpose.

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don’t think that was possible with these switches

idk if this happens to you where your muscle memory for something you’ve done countless times fails you occasionally (example in my case: kill the heat when cooking something). after reading about the interaction between the pilot and co-pilot it makes me wonder if that’s a possibility at all. no malicious intent, just pure human error?

I read that there was a dialogue between pilots, where one asked the other why the switches were in cutoff, and the other denied doing it. It seems like the accused then tried to switch them back. Makes me wonder, if it was a deliberate act why would they engage at all?