Mumbai: The US-based GE Aerospace has submitted its definitive engine analysis report to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), clearing a critical bottleneck in the investigation into last year’s fatal crash of Air India flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad.
Critical Bottleneck Cleared
The twin engines of the widebody aircraft had been shipped to a specialized GE Aerospace facility in the United States to evaluate whether an underlying mechanical or electrical failure triggered the catastrophic crash, which claimed the lives of all 260 people on board.
The technical analysis of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s engines was a primary reason the final accident report could not be published within the standard one-year window following the disaster. With these findings now in hand, senior officials close to the probe indicate that the final investigation report is likely to be made public within the next two months.
Preliminary Findings
AAIB’s preliminary investigation report had stated that both engines stopped mid-flight and had also noted a brief conversation between the pilots about cutting-off the fuel. The American manufacturer's report is expected to answer a few questions related to fuel starvation to the engines – one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the accident.
Since the final findings could impact the global Boeing 787 fleet and are highly likely to be legally contested by international stakeholders, the pressure on Indian investigators to present an airtight conclusion is immense. Aviation safety experts have previously warned against the temptation to default to pilot error without exhaustive proof of the systemic factors involved.
“The AAIB must definitively answer whether a sophisticated electrical glitch or design vulnerability within the Dreamliner’s command architecture could have falsely triggered or facilitated the dual fuel cutoff sequence. Whatever the cause is confirmed in the report, it will need to have very strong scientific evidence,” said an expert.
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