The Air India crash in Ahmedabad that resulted in the death of 260 people is currently being investigated. Recently, a preliminary report investigating the crash was released. It suggested that both fuel switches were cut off at the time of the crash. YouTuber Captain Steeeve said that the report was “nothing short of stunning,” as the investigation seemed to support the theory of dual engine failure. He said that these switches involve a three-step process to be cut off, and that turning them off couldn’t be a mistake.
He shared his opinions after studying the 15-page report. He said that under normal circumstances, a pilot would never cut off the fuel switch when the plane is airborne. Captain Steeeve added that if an aircraft loses both engines, the pilots are trained to not touch anything until they are at least 400 ft in the air.
He then spoke about the possibility if a pilot could have cut off both fuel switches and said, “Anything is a possibility but that’s not a part of their training.” He discussed that there was only one scenario as per which both switches would be in the cut off position, and that would be in case of a dual engine failure, but even in that case, the pilots are “required to place both switches to cut off and then back to run, that’s the entire procedure. You don’t leave them to cut off, especially not seconds after rotating.”
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He said that the RAT (Ram Air Turbine), was visually seen to be deployed seconds after take off and mentioned that it gets deployed only after the fuel switches are in cut off position, while the plane is airborne. Towards the end of his video, without making any definitive claims, Captain Steeeve implied that either of the pilots could have been going through a personal crisis. He said that the plane was working as it was supposed to, but the fuel switches were both cut off by a person.
“All I know is that some human being in that cockpit took those two fuel control levers from run and placed them on cut off. That plane, those engines were operating exactly according to the design. There was nothing wrong with the aircraft, either the engines, or the design from Boeing. What happened was somebody placed those switches to cut off. We don’t know the reason why, we may never know the reason why,” he said.
