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Preliminary report into Air India crash released

(www.bbc.co.uk)
308 points cjr | 3 comments | 11 Jul 25 20:23 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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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chupchap ◴[11 Jul 25 21:29 UTC] No.44536947[source]▶
Or a mechanical failure
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ceejayoz ◴[11 Jul 25 21:30 UTC] No.44536955[source]▶
Both switches, at slightly different times? Seems pretty unlikely.
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userbinator ◴[12 Jul 25 01:35 UTC] No.44538547[source]▶
A rodent chewing on wires. Vibration-induced chafing. Tin whiskers causing an intermittent short. There are many possibilities, those came to mind first.
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Epa095 ◴[12 Jul 25 01:59 UTC] No.44538655{3}[source]▶
But why does the pilot then comment that they are in the CUTTOF position and move it to RUN? A mechanical failure would have to also move the physical switch in the cockpit for the audio recording to make sence.
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1. userbinator ◴[12 Jul 25 02:05 UTC] No.44538690{4}[source]▶
You have the exact CVR audio? The report says "one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff" which I interpreted to mean one of them noticed the engines shutting down, and asked the other if he did that.
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2. bronson ◴[12 Jul 25 02:57 UTC] No.44538922[source]▶
Then he would have asked the other pilot why the engines are shutting down. It seems a lot more probable that he glanced at the switches before asking such an explicit question.
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3. userbinator ◴[12 Jul 25 04:09 UTC] No.44539227[source]▶
Without listening to the CVR audio and knowing what they actually said, there's no evidence either way, and AFAIK they have not released that.