"Pilots did everything right": Captain Umang N Jani on AI 171's crash report

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], July 12 (ANI): Captain Umang N Jani, Head of Department (HoD) Aviation at Indus University, on Saturday said that the pilots of the crashed Boeing 787-8 Air India flight 171 did "everything right" by attempting to restart the engines.
He said that the preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) mentions that the fuel switch was at the "run" position.
"The pilot did everything right. It is part of the training that when engines fail, you attempt to restart them. The report also suggests that the fuel switch is in the run position. This aircraft has an FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) system in place. When you start the engine, there is a complete sequence that needs to be followed, and this system automatically follows this entire sequence," Captain Jani told ANI.
He informed that the engines stop working when the fuel supply stops, which makes such types of incidents possible. He said that the fuel switch is situated on the throttle quadrant in the aircraft, which was found to be in the "run" position, indicating that the pilot tried to restart the engine.
"It mentions fuel cutoff. When the fuel supply stops, both engines stop working, and then the type of incident that happened is possible. If I talk about the throttle quadrant, there is a fuel cutoff switch here. In the crash, it has been found that the fuel switch was in the 'run' position. It seems that the pilot tried to restart the engine. This process of whether to supply fuel to the engine is controlled manually from the cockpit," Jani added.
"Generally, the fuel switch is not put on cutoff after takeoff. This is done in two situations: normal and emergency. You put the switch on cutoff once the aircraft has landed and parked during normal times," he stated.
The Captain said that further investigation was required into the flight crash.
"This is a preliminary report. Now, there may be further investigation and the final report that will come, it is possible that we may get to see more information and more details in it," Jani said.
The AAIB's Preliminary Report, released on Friday, said that both the engines of the aircraft were moved from "run" to "cutoff" in quick succession, which resulted in the fuel supply being cut off. The report says that in the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he did the cutoff, which the other pilot denied ever doing so.
"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," the preliminary report said.
"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report added.
As per the Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR) accessed by the AAIB, engine 1's fuel cut switch transitioned from 'cutoff' to 'run' at about 8:08:52 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), and at 8:08:56 UTC, Engine 2's fuel switch also went from 'cutoff' to run'.
According to the report, just 13 seconds later, at 8:09:05 UTC, one of the pilots transmitted the Mayday call, which the Air Traffic Control Officer (ATCO) enquired about, but did not receive a reply. Shortly after, the aircraft was observed crashing outside the airport boundary, and the emergency response was activated.
The Airline Pilots' Association of India on Saturday also called for a "fair, fact-based inquiry," into the incident and rejected the "tone and direction of the investigation" which suggested a bias towards pilot error.
"The report was leaked to the media without any responsible official signature or attribution. There is a lack of transparency in investigations as investigations continue to be shrouded in secrecy, undermining credibility and public trust. Qualified, experienced personnel, especially line pilots, are still not being included in the investigation team," the association said in a statement.
Notably, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol urged people not to draw conclusions based on the preliminary report. While speaking to mediapersons, the MoS said, "The AAIB has brought out a preliminary report. This is not the final report. Until the final report comes out, we should not arrive at any conclusion. AAIB is an autonomous authority, and the ministry does not interfere in their work." (ANI)