Air India Crash: One Mayday Alert, Focus on Fuel Control Switches — What We Know So Far

Air India Crash: The preliminary report of the crash of the Air India plane which killed 250 people in Ahmedabad on June 12 is likely to come out, in one of the worst aviation disasters in Indian history, in a month or so.

The report prepared by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is scheduled to be released one month after the crash and should provide the early indications as to the causes of aircraft losing thrust after only 30 busy seconds of flying.

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Senior authorities of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) informed to a parliamentary panel that the report on the preliminary stage of the crash of the London-bound flight would be made open to the public in the coming days.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu too on Friday assured that the report will be out, "very soon".

Just after the Air India Flight AI-171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner took off from Ahmedabad International Airport Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, it crashed minutes later on a medical hostel complex, leaving all the passengers on the plane except one dead.

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What has emerged from the tragic crash:

• The agency carrying out investigation into the accident is called AAIB and consists of aviation specialists, including one aviation medicine expert, an ATC officer, representatives of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and is headed by DG AAIB.
• Not long ago, the AAIB officials had reported that within 30 days of the tragic accident, the preliminary report on the crash was to be made available to the general population. Nonetheless, it is not very clear how much information would be on display in the report.
• Since the crash the investigators have already disclosed rather little information and the preliminary report can be very primitive and dry.
• This is also the first incidence in India where the black box of a crashed plane is being investigated. The investigation has the involvement of some aviation agencies such as foreign experts.
• The black box has received the cockpit voice and the flight data recorders whose content has been extracted and is under investigation by the authorities. The Air India pilot issued a mayday alert, it was reported once before the plane crashed.
• Bloomberg, citing authorities who have been briefed about the case, stated that the probe also being done is the movement of fuel control switches, which are located in the center console at the cockpit. Whether the switches were toggled by the pilots or not, whether purposely or accidentally is not clear.
• At the same time, the report stated that the investigators have not detected anything that could make them believe that there was a design or engineering glitch in the Boeing plane or the GE engines that caused the crash.
• There are a number of videos online where they spread with Ram Air Turbine (RAT) used in Air India. Essentially it is being believed that RAT was deployed implying a dual engine failure.
• Nonetheless, analysts have declared that it was impossible to restart the engines of the plane at such an altitude to a speed, only some seconds after the takeoff.

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