Accident India Orders Urgent Boeing Fuel Switch Checks After Deadly Crash

[webfact]

File photo courtesy of Reuters

 

India's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has demanded immediate inspections of fuel control switches on Boeing planes following a catastrophic Air India crash that claimed 260 lives in June.

 

The move comes as both Indian and international airlines rush to conduct their own checks. This heightened scrutiny follows reassurance from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday, stating that these switches are indeed safe.

 

Concerns arose after a preliminary report revealed that fuel supply to the engines of the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner, bound for London, was mysteriously cut off moments after take-off. Flight 171's crash is one of the gravest aviation disasters in nearly a decade, prompting global responses and statements from key stakeholders.

 

The DGCA has ordered that inspections be completed by 21 July, emphasising the crucial need for "strict adherence to the timeline" to maintain air safety. This directive aligns with a 2018 FAA advisory, which suggested—though did not mandate—inspections of the fuel cut-off switches’ locking mechanism to prevent accidental movement.

 

Air India had not performed these checks, given their non-mandatory status, per the preliminary findings by the India Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB). The new directive requires airlines to conduct these assessments and report their findings.

 

In response to the report, the FAA reiterated that the 2018 advisory was issued following concerns over the locking features of fuel switches, but reassured that this does not render the aircraft unsafe.

 

Meanwhile, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association came forward to support the crew of the stricken flight. They stated that the pilots acted in accordance with their training during the crisis and urged against public speculation and blame.

 

Cockpit voice recordings recovered from the incident show a pilot questioning why the fuel switch was moved to the "cut-off" position, undermining engine thrust, with the other pilot denying any such action.

The AAIB underlined that the preliminary report's focus is on understanding the incident without assigning blame.

 

Elsewhere, Reuters reported that South Korea is also considering inspections of Boeing jets' fuel switches, reflecting the international ripple effect from this tragedy.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from BBC 2025-07-15

 

 

[TedG]

India does not want to admit that one of its pilots was responsible. 

[BarraMarra]

Just been watching Piers Morgan on Uncensored his Guest is the flight Captain who has his own U-Tube channel so he knows what he is talking about. There is a Conspiracy going around that this Accident was not an Accident but Murder Suicide. There disgussing the Captain who could have been under stress due to the Death of his mother and he told Collegues he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father. The Captain is 100% Certain the Fuel cut off switches have to be manually opperated and in all his career he has never known these switches to accidentally gone into cut off. To back up this theory the CVR recorded a voice saying " Why did you turn these switches off " where another member on the flight deck said " I did not " The second officer was inFlying the Aircraft with the Captain Monitering. No doubt the voices will be identified further into the investigation. So conspiracy or Accident.

[gargamon]

23 minutes ago, BarraMarra said:

his Guest is the flight Captain who has his own U-Tube channel so he knows what he is talking about.

Yes, everyone with a YouTube channel is an expert and knows what they're talking about. 555. The last place to look for accuracy, well second last after TikTok.

[mikeymike100]

There are no documented cases of a Boeing 787 crash caused by the fuel control switches being moved to "CUTOFF" in flight, either intentionally or inadvertently, prior to the Air India Flight 171 incident. The 787’s fuel control switches, manufactured by Honeywell, are mechanical, require deliberate action to move past a locking mechanism, and are designed to prevent accidental engagement. No prior 787 crashes or incidents in public records or the preliminary report point to this specific issue.

Someone moved the switches?

[newbee2022]

There was said actually a third pilot/airline member/crew member in the cockpit. Behind in the jump seat.

So at present it's unknown about this person and the voice recorder has to be checked who was speaking.

Again here a lot of assumptions. Same as directly after the crash.

 

[VocalNeal]

I don't think there is any doubt about the engine reverting to idle , as the aircraft came down.

 

What I find abhorrent is the US/Boeing trying to blame the incident on the India crew to divert attention away from potential fault with the aircraft.🤮

 

Next they will be telling us that one of the crew had multiple partners, five cars and had gambling debts.

 

[HK MacPhooey]

5 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Just been watching Piers Morgan on Uncensored his Guest is the flight Captain who has his own U-Tube channel so he knows what he is talking about. There is a Conspiracy going around that this Accident was not an Accident but Murder Suicide. There disgussing the Captain who could have been under stress due to the Death of his mother and he told Collegues he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father. The Captain is 100% Certain the Fuel cut off switches have to be manually opperated and in all his career he has never known these switches to accidentally gone into cut off. To back up this theory the CVR recorded a voice saying " Why did you turn these switches off " where another member on the flight deck said " I did not " The second officer was inFlying the Aircraft with the Captain Monitering. No doubt the voices will be identified further into the investigation. So conspiracy or Accident.

If the pilot was committing suicide, cutting off fuel to the engines would have been the least obvious action for him to take unless he also activated the engine fire extinguisher bottles making them harder to relight - much easier to either put the aircraft into a stall or push the control column forward with a high bank angle to fly the aircraft into the deck.

 

One thing that is strange is that it took the other pilot nearly 10 seconds to restore fuel flow in an action that should have been instinctive even though not a standard operating procedure.

[harryviking]

What kind of pilots would turn of the fuel to the engines??? Where did they find these two morons???😫

[VocalNeal]

55 minutes ago, HK MacPhooey said:

One thing that is strange is that it took the other pilot nearly 10 seconds to restore fuel flow in an action that should have been instinctive even though not a standard operating procedure.

 

Maybe difficult to do if the GPU socket fault is still sensing the GPU?

[Hamus Yaigh]

13 minutes ago, harryviking said:

What kind of pilots

Suicidal ones. 

 

6 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

There disgussing the Captain who could have been under stress due to the Death of his mother and he told Collegues he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father.

Is English not your native tongue, I suppose not from what you write? The above state is completely misleading however as "he told Collegues (sic) he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father" is not what is said in the Morgan video at all. He was considering leaving his job as a pilot to look after his father at home which is completely different to leaving the cockpit seat and implying his father was sat at the back of the plane!

[mikeymike100]

2 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

There was said actually a third pilot/airline member/crew member in the cockpit. Behind in the jump seat.

So at present it's unknown about this person and the voice recorder has to be checked who was speaking.

Again here a lot of assumptions. Same as directly after the crash.

 

The preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) does not mention a third person in the cockpit. It focuses on the two pilots—Captain Sumeet Sabharwal (pilot-in-command, monitoring) and First Officer Clive Kunder (pilot flying)—and their interaction regarding the fuel control switches. The CVR transcript excerpt only references the two pilots, with no indication of a third voice or presence.

The flight manifest, as noted in posts on X, indicates a rostered two-person crew, and there is no mention of an authorized jump-seater (a non-revenue passenger or crew member occupying the cockpit jump seat). Air India has procedures to record authorized jump-seaters, and no such record is referenced in the preliminary findings.

[proton]

It took 10 seconds for one of them to re engage the switches to on, far too late

[billd766]

7 hours ago, gargamon said:

Yes, everyone with a YouTube channel is an expert and knows what they're talking about. 555. The last place to look for accuracy, well second last after TikTok.

I agree with you.

 

However a Youtube channel or a Tik-Tok account does NOT replace the pilots notes or the aircraft manuals for the make and model number. Things can vary even between different model numbers of the same aircraft.

 

There seem to be quite a few posters on AN who are self appointed experts of some sort or another.

[newbee2022]

8 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Just been watching Piers Morgan on Uncensored his Guest is the flight Captain who has his own U-Tube channel so he knows what he is talking about. There is a Conspiracy going around that this Accident was not an Accident but Murder Suicide. There disgussing the Captain who could have been under stress due to the Death of his mother and he told Collegues he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father. The Captain is 100% Certain the Fuel cut off switches have to be manually opperated and in all his career he has never known these switches to accidentally gone into cut off. To back up this theory the CVR recorded a voice saying " Why did you turn these switches off " where another member on the flight deck said " I did not " The second officer was inFlying the Aircraft with the Captain Monitering. No doubt the voices will be identified further into the investigation. So conspiracy or Accident.

The pilot doesn't know more than you and me. Just from news.

So all he can do as anybody does: assumptions.

Until the voice recorder is not checked and it's clear who's speaking it's just filling pages.

Next

[BarraMarra]

4 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

There was said actually a third pilot/airline member/crew member in the cockpit. Behind in the jump seat.

So at present it's unknown about this person and the voice recorder has to be checked who was speaking.

Again here a lot of assumptions. Same as directly after the crash.

 

You can discount the crew member in the jump seat unless he reached through past the pilots to hit the switches.

[BarraMarra]

1 hour ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Suicidal ones. 

 

Is English not your native tongue, I suppose not from what you write? The above state is completely misleading however as "he told Collegues (sic) he was going to leave the Captains seat to look after his Father" is not what is said in the Morgan video at all. He was considering leaving his job as a pilot to look after his father at home which is completely different to leaving the cockpit seat and implying his father was sat at the back of the plane!

By that i meant he was thinking of leaving the industry Hamus Yaigh.

[BarraMarra]

You will be Surprised how many Pilots decided to take there life in a cockpit. The most famouse or infamouse being Andreas Lubitz killing 150 on board when he flew a German Wings Airbus A-320 directly into a Mountain in the French Alps in 2013. He did not just push the stick forcing the plane down he put it in a slow decent and calmly sat back waiting for impact while the captain can be heard trying to open the door into the cockpit. 

[mikeymike100]

1 hour ago, proton said:

It took 10 seconds for one of them to re engage the switches to on, far too late

Yes, 10 seconds is long time when the aircraft has no power and is falling!

[pacovl46]

5 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

There are no documented cases of a Boeing 787 crash caused by the fuel control switches being moved to "CUTOFF" in flight, either intentionally or inadvertently, prior to the Air India Flight 171 incident. The 787’s fuel control switches, manufactured by Honeywell, are mechanical, require deliberate action to move past a locking mechanism, and are designed to prevent accidental engagement. No prior 787 crashes or incidents in public records or the preliminary report point to this specific issue.

Someone moved the switches?

I’ll never understand why suicidal pilots don’t just jump off a building instead of taking hundreds of lives with them when they off themselves! 

[BLMFem]

4 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

I don't think there is any doubt about the engine reverting to idle , as the aircraft came down.

 

What I find abhorrent is the US/Boeing trying to blame the incident on the India crew to divert attention away from potential fault with the aircraft.🤮

 

Next they will be telling us that one of the crew had multiple partners, five cars and had gambling debts.

 

I'm just waiting for someone to blame DEI hiring practices.

[nauseus]

5 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

There was said actually a third pilot/airline member/crew member in the cockpit. Behind in the jump seat.

So at present it's unknown about this person and the voice recorder has to be checked who was speaking.

Again here a lot of assumptions. Same as directly after the crash.

 

 

There was no third pilot according to the manifest. If someone else as there it had to be a "guest". 

[nauseus]

57 minutes ago, BarraMarra said:

You will be Surprised how many Pilots decided to take there life in a cockpit. The most famouse or infamouse being Andreas Lubitz killing 150 on board when he flew a German Wings Airbus A-320 directly into a Mountain in the French Alps in 2013. He did not just push the stick forcing the plane down he put it in a slow decent and calmly sat back waiting for impact while the captain can be heard trying to open the door into the cockpit. 

 

Yes, bloody horrible.

[newbee2022]

3 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

There was no third pilot according to the manifest. If someone else as there it had to be a "guest". 

That's what I said. Thanks for repeating 👍

[nauseus]

1 minute ago, newbee2022 said:

That's what I said. Thanks for repeating 👍

 

It's not what you said. So no need to thank me.

 

Thank you.

[newbee2022]

5 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

It's not what you said. So no need to thank me.

 

Thank you.

Take your glasses or a shrink. Thank you for your reply

[newbee2022]

7 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

It's not what you said. So no need to thank me.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Especially for this old man here:

 

That's what I wrote. 

 

pilot/airline member/crew member

 

That's including even your pick.

 

In future you can scroll down instead to send silly replies.

[PETERTHEEATER]

I do not think the Fuel Ctoff/Run switches are mechanically connected to fuel system valves but are electrically connected in a circuit that controls electrically operated valves. If so there is a possibility that the fuel system valves received a spurious signal to cutoff the fuel.

 

From what I have read and viewed in video discussions the conclusion by investigators that the actual Cutoff/ Run switches had been operated is based on data from the recovered Flight Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder. Did the investigators access the crash remains and actually see and record the position of the switches? Is the flight computer given access to the circuits and able to operate fuel flow valves under certain prescribed conditions? 

 

 

 

[nauseus]

23 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

 

 

Especially for this old man here:

 

That's what I wrote. 

 

pilot/airline member/crew member

 

That's including even your pick.

 

In future you can scroll down instead to send silly replies.

 

Well covered there eh? Maybe it was a gold member.

[newbee2022]

14 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

Well covered there eh? Maybe it was a gold member.

 

1 hour ago, pacovl46 said:

I’ll never understand why suicidal pilots don’t just jump off a building instead of taking hundreds of lives with them when they off themselves! 

Yeah, asking is not an option?🥴