Pilot May Have Cut Fuel Flow In Air India Crash, Says Wall Street Journal

NEW DELHI — A cockpit voice recording from the June 12 crash of an Air India Boeing 787 indicates that one of the pilots may have cut off fuel to the plane’s engines just after takeoff, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the early findings of U.S. investigators.

The Dreamliner had just departed from Ahmedabad for London when it lost power and crashed, killing 260 people, including 19 on the ground. The Journal reported that First Officer Clive Kunder, who was piloting the aircraft, was heard on the cockpit audio asking Captain Sumeet Sabharwal why he had shut off the fuel flow. The other pilot replied that he had not. U.S. experts reviewing the exchange told the Journal that at such a critical stage of flight, Kunder likely would not have had the capacity to reach for the fuel controls.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), in a preliminary report released July 12, confirmed that both fuel switches were moved from “run” to “cutoff” within a second of each other. However, the report did not determine who moved the switches or whether it was done intentionally or by accident. Immediately after the plane lifted off, surveillance footage showed the deployment of the ram air turbine, a device that activates when there is a total loss of engine power.

The aircraft managed to climb to 650 feet before losing thrust and descending. The fuel switches were then returned to “run,” and the engines attempted an automatic restart, but the plane lacked the altitude and speed to recover. It clipped trees and a chimney before crashing into a medical college campus and bursting into flames. Only one of the 242 people on board survived.

An internal memo from Air India CEO Campbell Wilson stated that the aircraft had no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all service requirements had been met. The AAIB’s report issued no recommendations for Boeing or GE, the engine manufacturer. After the findings were released, both Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration privately reiterated their confidence in the safety of the fuel switch locking system, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

While the investigation remains ongoing, aviation analyst John Nance told Reuters that the available information strongly points to a manual shutdown of fuel. He noted, however, that investigators still need to examine all possible contributing factors before drawing final conclusions.

The crash has renewed international calls for the installation of cockpit image recorders—cameras that could provide visual context to cockpit events. Some aviation experts argue that such footage might have offered decisive insight into what happened aboard the Air India flight.

Separately, Air India’s budget arm, Air India Express, is under investigation by European aviation regulators after a Reuters report alleged it delayed mandated engine part replacements on an Airbus A320 and falsified documentation to show compliance.