Air India crash: What are fuel control switches? What is their importance

New Delhi: The interval in-between file on the Air India aircraft smash that took website online on June 12 at Ahmedabad has suggested that the Air India Dreamliner, which crashed rapidly after takeoff, may wish suffered mechanical or energy present concerns that will have resulted in the commerce in the website online of the switches that feed gasoline into the aircraft, consultants mentioned on Saturday, 12 July 2025. They mentioned that the explanations for the commerce in gasoline switch website online shall be acknowledged all the device by extra investigations.

Who performed investigation into Air India smash?

The investigation was performed by the Airplane Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) whose preliminary file has mentioned that gasoline switches of engine 1 and 2 of the Boeing 787-8 aircraft have been minimize off interior a niche of one second and later became on sooner than the smash on June 12.

On June 12, the London-sure Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust nearly at as soon as after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport and ploughed true into a clinical college hostel, killing all but one in every of the 242 onboard and one other 19 on ground in the deadliest aviation accident in a decade.

The Airplane Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) submitted the preliminary file on the AI-171 smash in Ahmedabad to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the concerned authorities. Extra than 250 other folks have been killed in the smash.

What did investigation checklist?

The first file on the Air India Flight 171 smash was shared by Airplane Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday, 12 July 2025. The file entails a chilling recording from the cockpit, the place one pilot without warning realizes that gasoline present to each engines had been minimize off all the device by takeoff. He questions the opposite pilot, who replies that he didn’t attain it.

This early file comes one month after the dreadful smash, which killed 260 other folks, 241 on board and 19 on the bottom. The 15-page file supplies us the first obvious glance into what took place in the final moments of the flight. It furthermore raises new questions on why each engines lost gasoline at the an identical time.

At one level in the cockpit voice recording, one pilot is heard asserting, “Why did you cutoff?” The opposite responds, “I did not attain so.” This substitute presentations that the gasoline present was became off, but nobody in the cockpit claims to have executed it.

What are gasoline switches?

Gas switches are extinct to sustain an eye on gasoline waft true into a aircraft’s engines. They are extinct by pilots to begin up or shut down engines on the bottom or to manually shut down or restart engines if an engine failure occurs all the device by a flight.

In step with aviation consultants, a pilot would not be in a neighborhood to unintentionally transfer the gasoline switches that feed the engines. But when moved, the discontinue would be immediate, decreasing off engine energy. For this motive there are self sufficient energy systems and wiring for the gasoline cutoff switches and the gasoline valves controlled by these switches, in line with U.S. aviation safety expert John Cox.

There are best two modes on a gasoline switch, ‘Reduce attend Off’ and ‘Bound’.

Where are gasoline switches positioned?

The 2 gasoline sustain an eye on switches on a Boeing 787, the Air India aircraft that crashed in Air India’s case, was geared up with two GE engines and the gasoline switches are positioned below the thrust levers. These switches are spring-loaded to stay in website online. To commerce one switch from creep mode to cutoff mode, a pilot has to first pull the switch up after which transfer it from creep to cutoff or vice versa.

What took place on the lethal Air India flight?

In step with the flight recorder, just a few seconds after takeoff, switches for every engines transitioned to ‘CUTOFF’ from ‘RUN’ one after one other with a time gap of one second. As a end result, the engines began to lose energy. One pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the opposite why he minimize off the gasoline. “The opposite pilot answered that he did not attain so,” the file mentioned.

It did not name which remarks have been made by the flight’s captain and which by the first officer. Seconds later, the switches flipped attend to ‘RUN’, in line with the preliminary file. Each gasoline sustain an eye on switches have been chanced on in the ‘RUN’ website online at the smash space, it mentioned.

When gasoline sustain an eye on switches are moved from ‘CUTOFF’ to ‘RUN’ whereas the aircraft is in flight, each engine’s sustain an eye on machine automatically manages a relight and thrust restoration sequence of ignition and gasoline introduction, the file mentioned.

“No sane pilot would ever flip these switches off in flight,” especially because the aircraft is solely initiating to climb, U.S. aviation safety expert John Nance mentioned.

(With Reuters inputs)