The preliminary investigation revealed that fuel control switches on the Air India flight transitioned to 'cutoff' shortly before the crash, which killed 260 people. The cockpit voice recording revealed a communication issue between pilots regarding the cutoff. The aircraft was unable to maintain altitude after the switches were moved. Though power seemed to return when switches were reset to 'RUN', a 'MAYDAY' call was made shortly before the aircraft went down. The investigation continues, with a focus on the switch movement as a potential cause.
Fuel control switches to the engines of an Air India flight that crashed were moved from the 'run' to the 'cutoff' position moments before impact.
In the cockpit voice recording, one pilot is heard asking the other why did he cutoff fuel; the other pilot responded that he did not do so.
Once the aircraft achieved its top recorded speed, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF one after another with a time gap of 01 sec.
One of the pilots transmitted 'MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY', as the aircraft quickly began to lose altitude and air traffic controllers saw the plane crashing.
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