Air India crash report reveals new insight into tragedy

Some experts who have reviewed the initial report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) believe a pilot on board moved the switches. The airline said Tuesday (July 22) it completed precautionary inspections of the fuel control switch locking mechanism on all its Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft, finding no issues. The crash killed 241 people on board the flight and 19 on the ground. Investigators have focused on the fuel control switches of the Boeing 787 jetliner, which control fuel flow to aircraft engines and allow pilots to start or shut them down on the ground or manually intervene during in-flight engine failures. Air India began voluntary inspections of the switches on July 12, and India’s aviation regulator soon ordered all domestic carriers to make similar checks. A preliminary report from Indian regulators found the switches had almost simultaneously flipped from 'run' to 'cutoff' shortly after takeoff, causing the engines to lose power.