An investigation into the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed last month in India and left 260 people dead has revealed a mysterious audio recording of the aircraft’s two pilots after the Dreamliner suddenly lost fuel shortly after the plane departed on its flight.
According to Fox Business, a preliminary report released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on Saturday revealed that the Dreamliner’s fuel control switches were mysteriously flipped to the “cutoff” position, which prevented the engines from having the proper supply of fuel.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s report indicated that the cockpit voice recorder captured a recording of one pilot asking the other pilot why he “did” the “cutoff,” prompting the other pilot to say that “he did not do so,” according to Fox Business. The outlet noted that the report did not identify which voice belonged to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the aircraft’s pilot, and which voice belonged to Clive Kundar, the aircraft’s co-pilot.
Fox Business reported that investigators discovered that the aircraft’s fuel control switches were flipped from “run” to “cutoff” shortly after the Dreamliner completed liftoff. Investigators also discovered that both of the aircraft’s fuel control switches were set to the “run” position at the site of the crash, which indicates that the Dreamliner’s engines had been relit in an attempt to prevent the airplane from crashing.
READ MORE: Video/Pic: Sole survivor walks away from plane crash that left 200+ dead in India
The Daily Wire reported that aviation experts have confirmed that the airplane’s “cutoff” switch is not something that can be flipped accidentally.
Ira Astrachan, a former captain for Delta Air Lines, told The Daily Wire that an airplane’s fuel switch can only be put into the “cutoff” position by “manually activating the switch, which generally requires two fingers plus your thumb.”
“There is no physical way to move the switches from one position to the other by simply pushing them up or down like a typical household light switch,” Astrachan added.
According to a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson informed the airline’s staff members last week that the investigation into last month’s airplane crash is “far from over.” The CEO encouraged staff members to avoid theoretical conclusions regarding the cause of the crash.
Wilson stated, “Over the past 30 days, we’ve seen an ongoing cycle of theories, allegations, rumours and sensational headlines, many of which have later been disproven.”
