Boeing, Air India failed us, not pilots: Uddhav Sena MP on Air India crash report

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday accused Boeing, GE and Air India of "failing" and gave a clean chit to the pilots, after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report on the Ahmedabad plane crash that killed 260 people.

"....It seems clear that Boeing (manufacturer), GE (engine) and Tata Air India (operator) failed us, not our pilots," Chaturvedi said in a post on X.

Highlighting the findings of the report, she said, "Both engines shut down midair within seconds after takeoff - fuel cutoff switches moved from RUN to CUTOFF one after another" and that "no immediate sabotage evidence, but a known FAA advisory on possible fuel switch flaw existed -- inspections not done by Air India".

In another post, Chaturvedi slammed a British media house for claiming that the "pilots cut off fuel to the engines, no fault of the engines" and said, "Boeing Bacchao Corporation aka BBC".

BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, himself a commercial pilot, said an initial report came and it mentioned technical reasons and highlighted the steps taken by the pilots according to the situation.

He said the aircraft reached a speed of 180 knots after taking off, which showed that it was capable to fly initially.

Rudy also noted that both the fuel switches were found to be on after the crash.

"Only time will tell what happened exactly," he added.

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said people should not speculate on what had happened till the final report came as it would be an insult to those who lost their dear ones.

"I do not think we should be commenting on it. In fact, I would like to appeal generally to people not to comment on this. We have to wait for the final report."

"And for people who have no idea about these technicalities to go on commenting on who is responsible and to speculate on it - I think this is insulting to those who lost their loved ones on that flight. So I would say, stop this speculation and let us wait for the report," she said.

The preliminary AAIB report said seconds before Air India flight 171 crashed while ascending from Ahmedabad on June 12, the fuel control that switched off both its engines were cut off, suggesting a catastrophic pilot error in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The 15-page report into the disaster revealed that the fuel-control switches of the two engines moved from the "run" to the "cutoff" position within a second, leading to an immediate loss of altitude.

In the cockpit voice recording, one pilot was heard asking the other why he cut off the fuel, while the other denied having done so.

The AAIB report, released early on Saturday, neither concluded on any reason for the switches moving nor apportioned explicit blame for the crash.

It also did not identify the pilots in the voice recording. But it said no fault was found in the aircraft, leaving only the possibility of a pilot error.

The Airlines Pilots Association of India has said the investigation was "shrouded in secrecy", appears to be biased against the pilots and has come to a conclusion hastily.

The report, however, referenced a 2018 airworthiness bulletin by the US Federal Aviation Administration that said fuel switches were installed on Boeing 737s, a smaller model, "with the locking feature disengaged". The locking mechanism was similar on various Boeing aeroplane models, including certain 787s, it said.

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