New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Saturday said that the report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12 was based on preliminary findings. He also urged the public and media organisations not to jump to conclusions based on the AAIB’s preliminary report on the crash.
“This is a preliminary report right now, and from the ministry, we are analysing the report, but I think it would be better if we can comment on it once the final report comes in. So we are coordinating with AAIB also, whatever support or resources they need, we'll be providing to them, but AAIB will be the primary investigating agency into this and we are hoping that as soon as possible the final report also comes in so that we can arrive at some conclusions..,” Naidu told reporters.
“So right now, like the report has only stated within that there are multiple other things also that need to be looked into before preparing the final report. So we want the final report to come in to look at things, so let us wait till then... I don't think we should jump into any conclusions on this.,” he added.
When asked about the last conversations between pilots regarding fuel switches of both engines being transitioned into ‘CUTOFF’ from ‘RUN’, the minister said that India has the most ‘wonderful’ worforce in terms of pilots and the crew in the whole world.
Appreciating the AAIB, the union minister said, “I'd like to appreciate the job done by AAIB, a very commendable job. It was a very challenging task, in fact, for the first time, safely securing the black box and trying to decode the data and everything being done in India itself in the lab in Delhi for AIB, first of its kind, so I'd like to appreciate all the efforts they have put in to do a very transparent, very mature, professional way the investigation has been done and also all the international protocols have also been respected and followed.”
AAIB's Preliminary Report:
On Friday, the preliminary report on the Ahmedabad Air India crash that killed over 270 people revealed shocking details. The report showed that both switches feeding fuel to the two engines of Air India flight 171 were cut off, seconds after taking off.
"The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC, and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec," the report said.
The report pointed out that the engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off. "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it said.
Notably, at the time the aircraft took off, the co-pilot was flying the plane, while the captain was monitoring, reported PTI. The preliminary report recommended no action for now for the operators of Boeing 787-8 planes.
The London-bound Air India flight, AI 171, crashed on June 12 just seconds after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. At the time of the incident, there were 242 people onboard the plane, including 12 crew members. Only one passenger survived the crash.
The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced Line Training Captain with 8,200 flight hours, and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had logged 1,100 flight hours.
As the plane crashed into the hostel of BJ Medical College campus and burst into a ball of fire, people in the building also died. Over 270 people lost their lives in the crash.
