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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Day 26 after the Air India 171 crash and we are starting to receive some indications that the fuel switches may have been moved to the CUTOFF position at some point during the takeoff or initial climb sequence. That info is still subject to confirmation in the coming weeks, but it would be a major head-scratcher, involving either a gross error or murderous intent https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/ai171-investigation-fuel-control-switches/
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@mpryor.eth
How is there not a big fat flashing light that says “holy fuck you have the fuel switches turned off”??!?!?!!?
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
There is, you get a master caution at least, plus the display from the FADEC. We may eventually figure out from the CVR whether the pilot realized what was going on. But at such a low altitude, even if you realize that the switches are off, there’s not enough time to spool the engines back up
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@mpryor.eth
Cool. I don’t know anything about piloting or how planes work, but it seems risky to have a pilot work this fuel switch, when it could be done on automatically and deactivate until a certain altitude. I guess what is confusing to me (having read surface level) is why is it so hard to correct this error of the fuel switch being at cutoff, as the pilot?
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
You still need the ability to cutoff fuel into either engine in case of (for example) a bird strike upon takeoff — so that you can prevent a catastrophic fire. So the switch should remain enabled even at low altitude. The plane is designed to be able to fly on just the remaining engine. Correcting the error (intentional or otherwise) of the fuel being cutoff is trivial — just flip the switch back. The issue is that it takes a while for the engine (which has been fuel starved) to start producing enough thrust again. At cruise altitude that would not be a problem, but at takeoff it definitely is
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@mpryor.eth
Designed to fly with only one engine, wow. Planes and plane mechanics are so fascinating. So then if it’s trivial to flip to switch, (I assumed so) and if there are blatant hazard indicators of a fuel switch being cutoff, it seems to me that unfortunately the pilot is to blame for not correcting the error immediately? Just flip the switch back!! It’s all devastating.
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Even if the pilot flipped both switches back, it takes a while for the engines to restart and spool up, perhaps on the order of two minutes to full thrust. They barely had seconds before impact
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