An intial investigation into the tragic Air India plane crash that killed around 250 people last month – many of them Brits – may have pinpointed the exact cause of the devastating incident. Preliminary findings by US officials indicate switches controlling fuel flow to the engines of the plane, a Boeing Dreamliner, were turned off, which led to an apparent loss of thrust at take-off, sources familiar with their early assessments have claimed.
Such a scenario could explain why the commercial jet's emergency-power generator appeared to have been activated moments before it plummeted and crashed, killing all but one of the people onboard, the Wall Street Journal reports. Flight AI171 issued a Mayday call moments after taking flight and reached only 650 feet before crashing into a medical college complex, erupting into a fireball.
A British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, was the only person among the 242 people onboard the 787 who survived and managed to walk away from the wreckage despite his injuries.
The sources said it was unclear whether the switches had been turned off accidentally or intentionally, or if there had been an attempt to turn them back on.
The anonymous sources, who were quoted by the newspaper on Thursday, said early assessments by American officials do not indicate a problem with either the aircraft or its engines.
Murlidhar Mohol, an Indian civil aviation official, told NDTV news channel in late June: “Nothing can be said about the cause of the crash right now because the investigation is going on.”
The WSJ report came ahead of authorities in India being handed a preliminary report into the crash on Friday.
The document, by the Indian government's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), is based on the initial findings of their investigation, which is being supported by UK and US safety agencies.
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