The preliminary results of the deadly Air India flight disaster, which killed 260 people, have been revealed.
Last month, Air India Flight AI171, bound for London Gatwick, crashed barely 30 seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport in western India.
According to the business, the aircraft carried 242 persons, including 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, one Canadian citizen, and seven Portuguese nationals.
The collision killed 241 individuals onboard, leaving only one survivor, 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
The Indian Aircraft Accident Inquiry Bureau (AAIB) initiated an inquiry into the disaster, and a preliminary report on the tragedy was issued on Friday (July 11).
Though the extraction of the black boxes from the Air India aircraft was hindered by the plane’s wreckage, they were eventually obtained by investigators for study.
According to a report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, the fuel control levers in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were reversed, depleting the engines of fuel.
Investigators were able to collect this data after recovering the black box, which provided them with 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including from the disaster.
The airplane had achieved a speed of 180 knots when both engines’ fuel cutoff switches were transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time difference of 01 sec.’
The article went on: “The cockpit audio recording captures one pilot questioning the other about the reason for shutting off.” The other pilot denied doing so.
Today’s conclusions are preliminary, which means that additional investigation and answers for all those affected will come in the future.
There has been a delay in revealing these preliminary findings, but for very good cause.
Captain Steeve said that damage to the black boxes has further hampered investigators’ ability to extract the data they contain, saying, “If you have a flight data recorder that is not damaged at all, you can just plug a wire into it, connect it to a laptop, and retrieve the data. It becomes considerably more complex when they are damaged.
“Clearly, they couldn’t just plug these in and obtain the data. So now you have to physically remove the box from the airplane… And then you have to take that item and put it somewhere where someone can comprehend it.”
The expert went on to add that deciphering the date would have been difficult for investigators given the plane’s short flight duration.
Captain Steeve stated, “Since [issues] occurred so close to one another, it’s almost like a tangled ball of yarn.” It can be straightened and undone, but it is far more intricate than a lengthy string of yarn with a few knots…
That’s why it’s taken so long, and it may take longer to do it well. If I head that inquiry, I want to make sure we have the right answers before we go public.”