Air India flight 171 crash

 AIR INDIA FLIGHT CRASH

What happened to the fuel-control switches on doomed Air India flight 171?

A US media report shifts focus onto the actions of the captain of the aircraft, which crashed in Ahmedabad.

The tail of Air India Flight 171 after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad [Central Industrial Security Force/AFP]

By Al Jazeera Staff

Published On 17 Jul 202517 Jul 2025

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New details about last month’s Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which killed 260 people, have emerged this week, shifting focus onto the actions of the senior pilot during the last moments before the plane crashed.

According to a report published on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal quoting sources close to United States officials’ early assessment of evidence, the black box audio recording of the last conversation between the two pilots indicates that the captain might have turned off the switches controlling the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines.

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Last week, a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that both engines had shut down within the space of one second, leading to immediate loss of altitude, before the plane crashed into a densely populated suburb of Ahmedabad. However, that report, which stated the fuel-control switches had moved to the “cutoff” position, did not assign blame for the incident.

Two groups of commercial pilots have rejected suggestions that human error may have caused the disaster.

What happened to the Air India flight?

At 1:38pm (08:08 GMT) on June 12, Air India Flight 171 took off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad for London Gatwick Airport, carrying 230 passengers, 10 cabin crew and two pilots.

About 40 seconds after taking off, both engines of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lost power during the initial climb. The plane then crashed into the BJ Medical College Hostel in a populated suburb 1.85km (1.15 miles) from the runway.

The aircraft broke apart on impact, causing a fire that destroyed parts of five buildings. All the passengers on the plane died except one – Vishwaskumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin. Some 19 people on the ground were killed as well, and 67 were injured.

What did the AAIB report say?

The AAIB is investigating the crash, the deadliest aviation incident in a decade, along with Boeing and experts from the US and United Kingdom. A preliminary report from the investigators released on Saturday found the aircraft had been deemed airworthy, had up-to-date maintenance and carried no hazardous cargo.

But the report noted that a 2018 US Federal Aviation Administration advisory warned of a potential flaw in the fuel-control switch system of some Boeing planes, including the Dreamliner. The report said Air India did not inspect the system and it was not mandatory for it to do so. During the crash, recovery systems activated, but only partial engine relight occurred, the report stated.

Both engines shut down just after takeoff as fuel switches moved from the “run” to “cutoff” positions. The report cited a black box audio recording in which one pilot asked, “Why did you cut off?” and the other denied doing so. The speakers were not identified.

Despite taking emergency measures, only one engine partially restarted, and moments before impact, a “Mayday” call was issued before communications were lost.

Air traffic control received no response after the distress call but saw the aircraft crash outside the boundary of the airport. CCTV footage from the airport showed one of the flight recovery systems – known as the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) – deploying shortly after liftoff, followed by a rapid descent.