Mumbai: Just a week before the first anniversary of the tragic crash of Air India flight AI-171, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has shot off a strongly worded technical submission to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), aggressively challenging leaked "pilot suicide" theories and demanding that Air India and Boeing be forced to hand over and decode critical data links transmitted by the aircraft.
Dual Flameout Theory
In a letter written to AAIB Director on Friday, FIP President Capt. C.S. Randhawa urged the government safety watchdog to bypass preliminary conclusions and look deeper into a potential dual-engine flameout triggered by a catastrophic electrical failure. According to the FIP, ten specific Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) maintenance messages were transmitted from the aircraft shortly after the aircraft became airborne. The FIP claims that additional ACARS data, dating from 15 minutes prior to departure indicate that the aircraft may have been reporting technical issues before it even left the tarmac.
Since Air India lacks the independent capability to decode these highly technical, proprietary maintenance identifiers, the FIP is demanding that the AAIB direct Boeing to decode and interpret the strings. "An electrical disturbance involving abnormal current flow, arcing, insulation breakdown, or grounding-path current could propagate into the Boeing 787 Common Core avionics/network environment," the FIP submission states.
Electrical Disturbance
The pilots argue this propagation could have corrupted the data channels supplying engine-interface information to the Electronic Engine Controls (EECs), triggering a simultaneous Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) protective-response logic that shut down both engines in mid-air.
To back this claim, the FIP cited a US patent, which details FADEC fail-safe logic where a minor loop failure defaults the fuel metering valve to a "minimum flow position," a safety mechanism that can paradoxically result in an in-flight shutdown.
The most dramatic aspect of the FIP’s letter involves the recovery of the commanding pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. The union criticized the AAIB’s Preliminary Report for omitting critical forensic and eyewitness details from the crash site. The Free Press Journal had exclusively reported that Captain Sabharwal’s body was recovered from the wreckage with his hands gripping the flight controls so tightly that investigators literally had to cut the control column to transport his body to the mortuary. The FIP argued that this physical evidence strongly indicates a pilot desperately trying to pull the aircraft out of an uncommanded dive until the final, devastating moment of impact.
With the one-year anniversary approaching, the FIP is urging the AAIB to resist the bureaucratic urge to put out an update just to meet a calendar deadline. It claimed that an interim report is not explicitly mandatory if it risks compromising or oversimplifying a highly complex technical trail under the International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines. It warned that an interim report will only fuel public speculation and hinder the integrity of the active investigation.
The FIP listed several unresolved technical discrepancies that it wants fully answered in the final dossier before the AAIB clears Boeing of hardware or software blame. It demanded clarification on the earlier highlighted discrepancies in deployment of Ram Air Turbine, simulator validation and lithium battery hazards.
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