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The focus on the fuel switches on Air India Flight 171 raised questions about the pilots’ actions.
July 11, 2025, 5:18 p.m. ET
Seconds after takeoff and before an Air India flight crashed last month, the fuel was cut off to both engines of the plane, investigators said on Friday, in a preliminary assessment of information from the aircraft’s voice and data recorder.
The narrowed focus on the fuel switches on Air India Flight 171 raised questions about the pilots’ actions and appeared to rule out mechanical failure or design flaws. The report said “there are no recommended actions” to the aircraft and engine manufacturers, Boeing and General Electric.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff,” the report, by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so.”
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner went down on June 12, moments after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. All but one of the 242 people aboard were killed.
The plane rammed into the dining hall of a medical college before exploding in flames. Altogether, more than 270 people were killed, including dozens on the ground, officials said. It was India’s worst aviation disaster since 1996.
The flight was captained by Sumeet Sabharwal, with over 10,000 hours of experience flying large aircraft, and First Officer Clive Kunder, who brought 3,400 hours of flying experience, Air India said. That is more experience than officials attributed to the pilots last month, when they estimated a combined experience of about 10,000 hours.
