Air India Crash: Fuel Cut-Off Switch Movement Not Possible Without Manual Action, Says Senior Captain
No pilot would ever do it mid-flight, especially during takeoff, said Senior Commander at Air India Express, Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar.
As findings from the investigations into the Air India Flight AI171 crash come out, former senior captain at IndiGo and current Senior Commander at Air India Express, Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar, has weighed in on the troubling cockpit sequence revealed in the preliminary report.
Speaking specifically about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel control system, Bhatnagar raised critical questions about the possibility of unintentional switch movement.
“What I know for the Boeing 787 and the fuel control switches – first of all, it is absolutely not possible for them to move on their own,” Captain Bhatnagar told NDTV. They are spring-loaded switches with a detent mechanism precisely designed to prevent any kind of inertia or jolt from triggering a shutdown, he explained.
His remarks come after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau revealed in its preliminary findings that the fuel cut-off switches of the ill-fated flight moved from the 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' positions just one second apart. This movement effectively shut off fuel supply to both engines moments after the aircraft reached a speed of 180 knots, leading to a complete loss of thrust.
However, he pointed to there being guardrails for the switches. “You have to manually pull those switches to cut off fuel. This design exists to ensure they don’t move to 'OFF' by accident. There’s also a guardrail in place...No pilot would ever do it mid-flight, especially during takeoff," he explained.
The report further highlighted that cockpit voice recordings revealed confusion, with one pilot audibly asking, "Why did you cut off?" to which the other replied he had not done so. This brief exchange, combined with the one-second interval between switch movements and the 10-second delay before they were moved back to 'RUN', has left many in the aviation community deeply unsettled.
According to Bhatnagar, the switches were clearly commanded to 'CUTOFF', which actuates the fuel shut-off valves. Once in that position, the engine loses all fuel supply. It’s not something that can happen in error or by some system glitch—it requires deliberate input.
Despite the crew’s attempts to recover the situation—including activating the Auxiliary Power Unit, and commanding a relight of the engines—only one engine successfully returned to start-up mode. The other failed to recover sufficient power. By the time both engines were attempting a relight, the aircraft had already lost too much altitude and airspeed. It was too late.
The AAIB has yet to determine the root cause of the inadvertent fuel cut-off, and the investigation is ongoing. Boeing has pledged full cooperation, while industry experts continue to analyse whether a technical malfunction, inadvertent input, or a yet-unknown factor caused the catastrophic sequence.
