A shocking preliminary report on last month’s deadly Air India crash, which killed at least 270 people, reveals that fuel to both engines was cut off just moments after the aircraft took off.
Flight AI171, en route from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, experienced a sudden and unexplained shutdown of its engines shortly after liftoff on June 12.
According to investigators, both fuel cutoff switches moved from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” within one second, shutting down fuel supply to the engines. The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot asking the other why the switches were hit.
“The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report states.
Roughly 10 seconds later, fuel flow resumed and an automatic engine restart was triggered — but there simply wasn’t enough time to recover.
Just over 20 seconds after the cutoff, one pilot issued a distress call:
“MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY”.
A few seconds later, the black box stopped recording.
The aircraft, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, crashed into a building shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board except one survivor, as well as several people on the ground.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
