Air India 171 Crash Preliminary Report Causes A Kerfuffle | SAM Vignette - video Dailymotion

South Asia Monitor

MCR Op-Ed on the preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau into the Air India 171 crash of June 12, 2025.   The preliminary report on the horrific June 12, 2025 crash of Air India’s B787-8 Boeing at Ahmedabad by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is causing the quite the kerfuffle because of what it says and what it does not say.

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00:00Welcome to an occasional op-ed of Mayank Chhaya Reports. I'm Mayank Chhaya.

00:06The preliminary report of the horrific June 12, 2025 crash of Air India's Boeing 787-8

00:14at Ahmedabad by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau

00:19is causing quite the kerfuffle because of what it says and what it does not say.

00:24That is why it is a preliminary report. But notwithstanding that, apart from the obvious

00:31cause of the disquiet over the discovery that fuel switches were cut off within seconds of the

00:36takeoff, depriving fuel to the two engines, what jumps out at me is this observation in the 15-page

00:44report. In the section titled Progress of Investigation, the report says this, and I quote,

00:50At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to B787-8 and or GENX-1B

01:01engine operators and manufacturers, end quote. That is quite an extraordinary observation,

01:08virtually granting a clean check to both aircraft and engine manufacturers. One might argue that

01:14this is a preliminary report and things could change. But it is nearly impossible for me to

01:19envision a situation where the Bureau can now make an 180-degree turn and find mechanical problems

01:27attributable to either manufacturer. Of course, the crux of the report is this finding, and I quote again,

01:35the engine 1 and engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from run to cutoff, position one after

01:42another within a time gap of 0-1 second. The engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from the

01:49takeoff values as the fuel supply to the engine was cutoff. In the cockpit voice recording,

01:56one of the pilots is heard asking the other, why did he cut off? The other pilot responded

02:03that he did not do so, unquote. Since the fuel cutoff switches have to be manually handled,

02:10the speculation now is that whether it was done by one of the two pilots, and if so, why? At the

02:17same time, though, the cockpit voice recording has an exchange between the two where one is asking the

02:22other why he switched off the fuel supply, and the other says he did not. One has to bear in mind that

02:29the two pilots, Captain Sumit Sabarwal, 56, and First Officer Clive Kundar, 32, were very familiar with the

02:37aircraft. Captain Sabarwal had logged approximately 15,600 flight hours, including 8,600 hours on the

02:47Boeing 787, and Flight Officer Kundar had around 3,400 flight hours, with over 1,100 hours on the 787.

02:56It is impossible to imagine that either of them was not fully knowledgeable that turning off and

03:03turning on fuel switches is a function that required deliberate physical action. It could not have been

03:09done accidentally. Equally importantly, both being aware that everything that they are saying is being

03:16recorded for posterity did have that exchange where one asked if the switches were cut off and the other

03:22said no. Inevitably, the report has unleashed calumny against the two pilots, attributing to them all

03:30manner of motives, including suggesting that it was a suicide mission. That is deeply disturbing because

03:37the report itself does not say anything of the sort. It is sticking to the factual chronology of events

03:43analyzed with considerable professional expertise. We do not know what the final report will be,

03:49but if the preliminary report sets any trajectory, it is clear that the final conclusions will not be

03:56any significantly different. For instance, the final report could not possibly come out with findings

04:02that are diametrically opposite to what we know now. I seriously doubt if even the final report will be

04:09able to clearly establish whether the fuel switches were deliberately turned off by one of the pilots since

04:15there is clear denial in the cockpit voice recording according to the report. Of all actions that are

04:22absolutely clear to airline pilots, not going anywhere close to the fuel switches once the aircraft is

04:28airborne is one of them unless, of course, there is an emergency that demands that fuel supply be cut off to

04:34an engine. As a rule, this is done only once the aircraft has landed and is close to the passenger disembarking point.

Air India 171 Crash Preliminary Report Causes A Kerfuffle | SAM Vignette

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