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Preliminary report into Air India crash released

(www.bbc.co.uk)
314 points cjr | 3 comments | 11 Jul 25 20:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.626s | source
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decimalenough ◴[11 Jul 25 21:24 UTC] No.44536914[source]▶
> The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec. The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off.

So the fuel supply was cut off intentionally. The switches in question are also built so they cannot be triggered accidentally, they need to be unlocked first by pulling them out.

> In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so.

And both pilots deny doing it.

It's difficult to conclude anything other than murder-suicide.

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1. Waterluvian ◴[12 Jul 25 00:43 UTC] No.44538281[source]▶
Not that humans are known to behave rationally when trying to commit suicide, but it’s interesting that the switches were re-engaged successfully without protest or a fight. It’s just an interesting detail to wonder about.
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2. yardstick ◴[12 Jul 25 01:11 UTC] No.44538431[source]▶
The reasoning I’ve heard is: it didn’t matter anymore, the damage was already done and there was no way any attempts at recovering from it would have been successful.
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3. ExoticPearTree ◴[12 Jul 25 05:29 UTC] No.44539561[source]▶
There would have been an inaction on the part of the pilot that did this, but it is not mentioned in the CVR transcript.

Hard to believe the other pilot wouldn’t have said anything.

Recovering the airplane and have some people survive the crash are two very different things.