THE first report into the cause of the Air India crash which killed 260 people has turned the focus onto the pilots.
Analysis of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s Black Box indicates a possibility that the pilots may have made a human error while operating the flight bound for London.
Officials inspect the remains of the Air India passenger plane at the crash site near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad[/caption]
A tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building[/caption]
The preliminary report indicates switches to the engines’ fuel supplies were turned off seconds after take-off.
This could have triggered a loss of thrust, which resulted in the jet ploughing into a medical college, killing all but one of the 242 onboard and 19 on the ground.
It is almost impossible to turn the stitches off accidentally, but sources say the black box analysis has so far been unable to rule out “improper, inadvertent or intentional” action that caused them to be moved from the ‘RUN’ position to ‘CUTOFF’.
One potential sign that the switches were off was the deployment of the plane’s emergency power system, a ram air turbine or RAT, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder had nearly 14,000 hours of flying experience between them.
Locals have hailed them as heroes for avoiding their densely populated housing estate next to Ahmedabad airport as the jet screamed towards the ground a month ago tomorrow – saving hundreds of lives.
According to the guidelines set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), investigators should release a preliminary report within a month of the accident.
The preliminary report into the crash has been filed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) today.
But there is currently no obligation for India’s Civil Aviation Authority to make the report public.
Although given the nature and intensity of the crash, Indian authorities are expected to release the report to the public.
Lawyer and aviation expert James Healy-Pratt, representing 20 families from the 51 Brits who died, said: “They have been outspoken about their need for answers.
“This preliminary report is an opportunity to provide much-needed understanding to the families about the chain of events that took their loved ones.
“We all sincerely hope that they are not disappointed.”
Aerospace expert Dr Jason Knight, of the University of Portsmouth, said pilot error might be the cause:
“It’s possible that one of the engines could have been in trouble from a technical issue and the pilot perhaps inadvertently shut down the wrong engine. That would mean both engines would have no thrust.”
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 242 passengers on board – including 53 Brits – smashed into a doctors’ hostel in Ahmedabad in the west of India.
The plane was headed to London Gatwick with 232 passengers and 10 crew on board when it crashed just seconds after take-off.
The Dreamliner lost contact just seconds after take-off, according to flight tracking website Flightradar.
A final alert was last logged less than a minute after it started the journey from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
It had only reached 625ft at the time, officials believe.
Seconds before the crash, the Boeing was filmed flying low over the Meghani Nagar residential area with the pilots appearing to be in a desperate bid to keep the plane in the air.
Moments later, it was seen disappearing behind buildings before a huge blast was seen in the distance.
Brit passenger Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was the sole survivor of the fatal crash.
He cheated death after being flung from seat 11A on the flaming Air India jet – escaping with minor injuries and filmed walking away after the wreck.
Incredible footage showed him walking away from the wreckage almost unscathed.
Flanked by the locals, he can be seen making his way towards an ambulance with blood caking his face.
Speaking in Hindi, he says: “I just got out of the plane, it exploded.”
