Why The Air India Crash Report Raises More Questions Than Answers

Last Updated:July 12, 2025, 16:20 IST

The report concludes that cutting off of fuel supply led to the twin engines failing, and attempt to relight them did not yield result since the aircraft lacked sufficient altitude

A truck carrying wreckage of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad. (PTI)

The much-awaited preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the Air India crash is out. While it has answered a critical question on what led to the crash just minutes after the flight took off from Ahmedabad airport—cutting off of fuel supply to the engines—it has left many unanswered questions.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu, in his first reaction to the report on Saturday, said the full report must be awaited before reaching any conclusion. The swirl of unanswered questions, however, makes this India’s MH-370 moment as the mystery behind the Malaysian Airlines crash continues even after a decade.

Double-Engine Failure

The AAIB report concludes that cutting off of fuel supply led to the twin engines failing and attempt to relight the engines did not yield result since the aircraft lacked sufficient altitude.

“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 report said.

Unanswered Questions

1) How did the fuel supply get cut off?

Aviation experts tell CNN-News18 that the fuel switch cannot be automatically moved. It is a mechanical process with enough built-in safeguards. “It has to be moved mechanically from Run to Cutoff position after landing. There is a safety guard at the base of the switch which can be moved only after the spring inside is physically lifted," Ehsan Khalid, a retired Indian Air Force pilot said.

2) Was the switch then moved by the pilot?

The AAIB report has mentioned cockpit conversation between the two pilots as recorded by the flight data recorder. One of the pilots asks the other why the fuel cutoff switch has been moved but the second pilot says he hasn’t done so. “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report says. At this point, the report does not identify who asked the question and which pilot responded.

However, in para 12, the report says that it was First Officer Clive Kunder who was flying the aircraft on the day of the crash and Captain Sumeet Sabarwal was assisting. “The co-pilot was Pilot Flying (PF), and the PIC was Pilot Monitoring (PM) for the flight," the report stated, adding that the crew of flight AI171 had undergone pre-flight Breathalyzer test and were found fit to operate the flight. The report also said that the pilots were well rested.

Doubts have also been raised over the selective use of the cockpit transcript. The flight was airborne for about 38 seconds, but AAIB has only released one exchange between the pilot and the co-pilot. That in such a crisis no other communication happened between the two seems very unlikely. Is the data from the cockpit voice recorder impacted? Is that why the full transcript, which could have shed more light on what happened, has not been released?

The pilot association too is unhappy. In a statement, the association said: “The tone and direction of the investigation suggest a bias toward pilot error. We categorically reject this presumption and insist on a fair, fact-based inquiry."

3) Mechanical failure?

While aviation experts said the chance of failure of two fuel cut-off switches within one second of each other is one in a billion, AAIB—in its report—has noted a 2018 advisory from USA’s Federal Aviation Administration, which had highlighted fuel control switch issues.

“SAIB (special airworthiness information bulletin) was issued based on reports from operators of Model 737 airplanes that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged. The airworthiness concern was not considered an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) by the FAA. The fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, is similar on various Boeing airplane models including part number 4TL837-3D which is fitted in B787-8 aircraft VT-ANB," the report noted.

It also added that Air India told investigators that inspections of the fuel switch were not carried out on AI171 as the SAIB was advisory and not mandatory. The report also said no defect pertaining to the fuel control switch has been reported since 2023 on these aircraft.

The AAIB, however, has not recommended any further action by the engine or the aircraft manufacturers. “At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to B787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers," the report states, leading to more questions on whether preliminary probe has ruled out mechanical failures.

Arunima

Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from ground zero ...Read More

Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from ground zero ...

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