Mumbai, July 12: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) preliminary probe report on the fatal Air India plane accident in Ahmedabad has put the spotlight on the fuel switches of the crashed Boeing 787-8 and the confusion among the two pilots over the switches being cut off.
The 15-page report says that in the cockpit voice recording, one unidentified pilot asked the other why he had cut off the fuel, which the other denied.
Below is a brief profile of the two pilots:
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal: The 56-year-old veteran with 30 years of experience at Air India had commanded the ill-fated AI 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
He had logged 15,638 flying hours, including 8,596 on the Boeing 787. He was also an Air India instructor.
Sabharwal had called his family from the airport, assuring them that he would contact them again after landing in London.
His colleagues and co-pilots in Mumbai remembered him as a gentleman, known not just for his flying skills, but for his grounded nature.
Co-pilot Clive Kunder: The 32-year-old had 3,403 hours of total experience, with 1,128 on the Dreamliner.
Kunder was the pilot flying the AI 171, while Sabharwal was the pilot monitoring.
A resident of Goregaon in Mumbai, Kunder had worked for a year as an aeronautical engineer before successfully chasing his dream to be a pilot.
His neighbours remembered him as a good-natured man fond of sports who used to play cricket in the building compound.
On June 12, the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust almost immediately after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport and ploughed into a medical college hostel, killing all but one of the 242 onboard and another 19 on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in a decade.
The AAIB report said the aircraft took off at 08:08:39 UTC (13:38:39 IST) and at about 08:09:05 UTC (13:39:05 IST) one of the pilots transmitted ‘MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY’.
According to a chronology laid out in the report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, both fuel control switches – which are used to turn the engines off – were moved to the cutoff position almost immediately after takeoff.
The report, however, did not say how this happened or who did it. (PTI)
