All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to London Gatwick were killed as well as 19 others when the aircraft plunged into a medical student hostel last month shortly after take-off from India’s Ahmedabad airport.
The switches were moved in succession, one second apart, according to the AAIB’s report. Some 10 seconds later, the switches were turned back on. The report did not say whether the switches were turned off accidentally or deliberately.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar (Photo: Facebook)
“Air India has completed precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch on all Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet. In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism,” an Air India spokesperson said.
The switches in question have a detent that prevents them being accidentally moved. The switch has to be pulled up and out to clear the detent, then moved vertically. There are also two guardrails on either side of the switches to prevent accidental touch.
Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a veteran aviation safety expert in India and former Boeing pilot, told The i Paper that multiple pilots with Air India had been aware that Captain Sabharwal had been on leave with mental health struggles, despite having been found medically fit.
“They [pilots] told me he was suffering from depression and other mental health issues. Air India management knows this. They have all the records about his medical leaves,” Ranganathan said.
Video showing Air India 171, a 787-8 Dreamliner, shortly before it crashed (Photo: X/Twitter)
As per cockpit procedures, the pilot flying (PF) Kunder would have had both hands on the control column during take-off while Sabharwal would have had free hands. “That point is crucial,” Ranganathan said.
“What we need is a deeper psychological and behavioural review of the crew, not just in the days before the crash, but going back several months,” he said. “Passing a medical exam doesn’t tell the full story of a pilot’s mental state.”
In the weeks following the incident, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of sick leave requests filed by both cabin crew and First Officers, reflecting the broader emotional toll the tragedy has had on frontline staff.
Javed Ali Syed, from west London, along with his wife, Mariam, and children, Zayn Ali Syed with Amani Ali Syed, died in the plane crash (Photo: Amit Dave/ Reuters)
India’s Minister for Civil Aviation, Ram Mohan Naidu, has rejected news reports, blaming the captain for turning off the fuel switches before crash, as “media narrative… promoting [their] own viewpoint”.
But Ranganathan said that delays in the full report’s release would inevitably prompt speculation.
“Right now, there’s a wall of silence, no one is speaking. I’ve been asked to stop commenting publicly. The atmosphere is tense, and it’s clear there’s a concerted effort to control the narrative.”
Captain was ‘meticulous’ and had ‘highest standards’
“He was was extremely meticulous with his work in the cockpit. I mean, no shortcuts, everything was to the key, that sort of person,” said Neil Pais, a former colleague who knew Sabharwal for nearly a decade.
“He was planning early retirement in the next couple of years,” Pais said. “His father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.”
“If the pilot was mentally unfit, then why was he flying at all? Why did Air India allow him in the cockpit?” Ali said. “You can’t now turn around and call it suicide just to shift the blame. I want justice for closure, to heal our wounds.”
‘This could be a serious technical fault’
However, as uncertainty grows over what may or may not have happened in the cockpit of Air India Flight 171, there is disagreement among pilots and air safety experts over whether a pilot was responsible.
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“From the evidence available so far, this doesn’t look like pilot sabotage. It points to a serious technical fault. The aircraft was already reporting multiple electrical issues even before takeoff. That’s not speculation, it’s logged data,” he said.
He said: “When the aircraft was taxiing out, it had several electrical faults. We know both battery protection units, the BPCUs (Bus Power Control Unit), registered faults. These control the aircraft’s battery health and charging systems. If both fail, the aircraft loses a critical safety net.”
“The rear flight recorder is designed to withstand temperatures of 1,000°C for over an hour. For it to melt like that, the internal fire must have been far hotter, we’re talking around 1,500°C, which only a thermal runaway from a lithium battery can generate,” he said.
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