Last week, the preliminary report was released about the tragedy of Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. The cause of the accident was that the fuel control switches were turned off just seconds after takeoff, one after the other, putting the plane into a situation it couldn’t recover from.
While the preliminary report contained a lot of details, there were also a lot of things that were left open-ended. Along those lines, The Wall Street Journal has some more details into the current investigation focus, which points to a chilling (but perhaps not surprising) explanation…
In this post:
Did Air India Boeing 787 captain intentionally down jet?
On the tragic Air India Boeing 787 flight that crashed, the first officer was the pilot flying, and the captain was the pilot monitoring. Based on the preliminary report, we knew that one of the pilots asked the other pilot why he turned off the fuel control switches, and he responded that he didn’t.
In the report, no additional details about that interaction were revealed. However, WSJ sources shed some more light on that situation:
- It was the first officer who asked the captain why he turned off the fuel control switches
- Once this happened, the first officer expressed surprise and then panicked, while the captain remained calm
- The investigation further reveals that it was the captain who is believed to have turned off the fuel control switches, since the pilot flying (the first officer) would’ve had his hands full, while the pilot monitoring (the captain) would’ve had his hands free
Obviously it’ll take some time (likely a year or more) before the final report is released. However, with no signs of anything abnormal leading up to the moment where the fuel control switches were turned off, it certainly suggests this was a deliberate act.
The timing here is also quite something. If the fuel control switches had been turned off seconds earlier, while the plane was still on the ground, this catastrophe could’ve been avoided. Meanwhile if the fuel control switches had been turned off some time later, a recovery and engine restart may have been possible.
The engines were cut off quite literally at the one point in the flight where there’s zero chance of recovery. The fact that the captain had free hands, was accused of turning off the switches, and then calmly denied turning off the switches, certainly points to a likely explanation. The fact that the switches were turned off one second apart is consistent with a human doing it (since that’s roughly how long it takes), rather than some dual malfunction.
Obviously the thought of an experienced airline pilot intentionally taking down a plane is a horrifying prospect. It wouldn’t be the first time, though.
Who was the captain of Air India flight AI171?
56-year-old Sumeet Sabharwal was the captain of the doomed Air India Dreamliner, and he had over 15,000 flight hours. Sabharwal joined Air India in 1994, and was described as a soft-spoken man devoted to caring for his ailing father. His father had inspired his aviation career, as he worked in India’s civil aviation ministry.
In 2022, Sabharwal had taken leave following the death of his mother. Some sources suggest he had recently been considering retiring, in order to spend more time with his father. Other sources (not the WSJ) suggest he may have been struggling with depression and mental health in recent years.
Going back decades, Sabharwal started his flying career in the early 1990s, attending the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi flight school, run by India’s civil aviation ministry. A classmate of Sabharwal said that he stood out at his school, as he was very polite, never cursed, never drank alcohol, and spoke so softly that he sometimes had to be asked to speak louder. His classmate claims “he was a very reserved guy right from the beginning.”
He was incredibly passionate about flying, and liked mentoring younger students. Some students who shadowed him claimed that he explained flying concepts better than some instructors.
This specific incident aside, it’s clear that the industry has a major problem when it comes to pilots with mental health concerns, and getting those treated. Essentially, if pilots acknowledge that they’re suffering from depression or other mental health issues, they could be grounded, and have their licenses revoked. So it creates a culture where pilots are better off not addressing those issues, and instead, trying to sweep them under the rug.
Bottom line
The investigation into the crash of AI171 is specifically centering around the 56-year-old captain (who was the pilot monitoring). Just seconds after takeoff, the first officer (who was the pilot flying) asked him why he turned off the fuel control switches, and he denied it. While the first officer panicked, the captain reportedly remained calmed, even as the plane sunk toward the ground.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this investigation continues to unfold, as (potential) intentional acts by pilots tend to ruffle some feathers with regulators, and sometimes cause the outcome to be skewed a bit.
What do you make of the investigation focusing on the Air India Dreamliner captain?
If you haven’t yet, you need to watch season 2 of The Rehearsal. In fact. I’m sort of surprised you’ve not done a post about it yet Ben. Although you might have done and I’ve missed it. Anyway. Watch it.
I reviewed in its entirety the initial report of AAIB and several airiline captains including
retired indian airforce training instructor and
certifying pilot that there is no use of blaming the captain (sabherwal) or the copilot
if the copilot who is the real pilot operating the flight under check from capt sabherwal
is suspecting some foulplay about switch off or on position, if he is afraid of catastrophic dangers and its...
I reviewed in its entirety the initial report of AAIB and several airiline captains including
retired indian airforce training instructor and
certifying pilot that there is no use of blaming the captain (sabherwal) or the copilot
if the copilot who is the real pilot operating the flight under check from capt sabherwal
is suspecting some foulplay about switch off or on position, if he is afraid of catastrophic dangers and its consequences resulting in loss of lives of several passengers, he should have abandoned the flight and walked away from the cockpit
he can tell management that he will operate next flight and that he suspected some thing wrong with the switches or any
system of that ill fated flight. he had faith and confidence in captain Sabherwal.
sabherwal cannot be blamed for this disaster he really wanted to retire peacefully after serving some more months and he wants to take care of his father
no one will like to leave his dad alone in life
especially he is earning lot of money from his employer and he will retire with tons
of money from employer, Provindent fund
(like social security) with interest from employer and his own PF contributions with interest, gratuity and pension. he can have a royal life in bombay or punjab no one will
like to end his life. it is a wrong assumption in the minds of certain people. the investigation panel wants to put blame on some body (that some body is not alive and he is not available to dispute the allegations against him) the investigators wants to close the file with final verdict ''PILOTS' ERROR:. THEN THE FILE WILL BE CLOSED.
THEY HAVE NO GUTS TO BLAME BOEING OR
GENERAL ELECTRIC THEY DONT WANT TO SPEND TIME AND MONEY IN LITIGATOMG AGAINST BOTH BOEING AND GENERAL ELEC.
HOW MANY TRIPS (SORTIES) WERE OPERATED BY THIS AIRCRAFT, DID THE PILOTS WHO OPERATED THIS AIRCRAFT FROM ANOTHER SECTOR REPORT ANY DEFECTS IN THIS A/C.
AFTER BUYING AIRINDIA FROM GOVT OF INDIA
TATA MANAGAMENT CHANGED THE WHOLE MODULE AND BOTH THE SWITCHES. THEN WHERE IS THE PROBLEMS ABOUT SWITCHING MALFUNCTIONS. THERE MUST BE ALLEGED
"SABOTAGE" BY INSIDERS WHO WORKING NEAR THE FLIGHT LIKE GROUND HANDLING SERVICE CO. WHO HAVE ACCESS TO THE AIRCRAFT, GROUND SUPPORT SERVICES WHO DO AUXILIARY POWER CHARGE (APU) OR GROUND POWER CHARGE (GPU) AND THE CATERING CO. THERE WAS ENGINEERING PROBLEM FOR THE vvIp FLIGHT FROM BOMBAY TO DELHI TO SINGAPORE THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER INDIRA GANDHI WAS SUPPOSTED TO TAKE FLIGHT FROM DELHI. FLIGHT FROM BOMBAY WAS SUPPOSE TO GO TO DEL TO PICK UP INDIRA GANDHI PTY AND HER ENTOURAGE THAT AIRCRAFT WAS SABOTAGED BY CUTTING THE HYDRAULIC SYSEM COMPLY. THE A/C CANNOT TAKE OFF. IF THERE IS DISCONNECTION OF HYDRAULIC SYSTEM, IT WILL DISRUPT THE SUPPLY TO ENGINES. WE HAVE TO INVESTIGATE THESE THREE AGENCIES.
RECENTLY ONE OF THE GROUND HANDLING COMPANY OWING ALLEGIANCE TO TURKISH AIRLINES WAS TERMINATED BY GOVT. IT MIGHT HAVE RETALIATED AND INDIGO AIRLINE EMPLOYEES MIGHT HAVE HELPED THEM TO DO SABOTAGE IT IS A RETALIATORY ACTION FROM COMPETITORS
Wait a minute...I thought the AAIB was incompetent and them or the government was hiding something. Hence, there were no press briefings for whole month, website had more information on international yoga day instead of the accident, report was released around midnight (this pissed off at least one individual), didn't allow ICAO consultant and so on and so forth.
But since, most likely cause is an intentional pilot action and not an aircraft issue, suddenly,...
Wait a minute...I thought the AAIB was incompetent and them or the government was hiding something. Hence, there were no press briefings for whole month, website had more information on international yoga day instead of the accident, report was released around midnight (this pissed off at least one individual), didn't allow ICAO consultant and so on and so forth.
But since, most likely cause is an intentional pilot action and not an aircraft issue, suddenly, the AAIB is competent and their report is reliable.
Huh!!
+1 to this. Struggling to find any consistency in the reporting about this.
This again goes towards the privilege of the West: putting blame on to the pilots of their aircraft when something is the plane's control. Let's remember this is a Boeing and flying for Air India. Do we need to recap the MAX and Lion Air and Ethiopian? Fingers pointing to pilots of developing countries or 'not the West' but turns out it was Boeing all along. When is there going to be an investigation into Boeing for this?
Cmon don’t be ridiculous. Just because it is Boeing does not mean it is always Boeing’s fault. In fact 1 of the last 4 Major crashes that involved Boeing was clearly a pilot suicide that the Chinese government tried to coverup by not releasing the report, that being the China Eastern 737 NG
You are jumping to conclusions. Let the investigators find the answers. Pilot suicides and mistakes happen, it is not a rarity. And...
Cmon don’t be ridiculous. Just because it is Boeing does not mean it is always Boeing’s fault. In fact 1 of the last 4 Major crashes that involved Boeing was clearly a pilot suicide that the Chinese government tried to coverup by not releasing the report, that being the China Eastern 737 NG
You are jumping to conclusions. Let the investigators find the answers. Pilot suicides and mistakes happen, it is not a rarity. And besides in this case, this is very much looking like one of those two options
You're arguing with Indian Nationalists @Eve. They have no interest in the truth or improving safety. Their only concern is that Boeing receive the blame for this accident out of a misguided belief that the truth with mar the reputation of India. Meanwhile their obvious propagandist activities are far more embarrassing for India than this crash.
Signal that virtue, Kev.
Lol Kevin, so why are you defending a guy who murdered 259 people.
Didn't US government defend the company and regulatory agency that killed 346 people?
Touche !
Just following the evidence. Obviously, there's more to learn.
Yup, there's "privilege", but you forgot to mention "equity" in your "anti-racist" tirade. C'mon Kevin, I just know your Wokeish vocabulary is more extensive than one word, given how sensitive you appear to injustices directed towards people of colour and the other oppressed minorities of the intersectional oppression pyramid.
So far, no name or crappy airlines have been implicated in these crazy crashes.... Air India, German Wings, Egyptair, Malaysia, China Eastern.
There's one exception. In the early 1980's, a Japan Air Lines DC-8 crashed short of the runway in Tokyo killing about 25 of the 175 passengers.
Thank you for your report, Sir.
We need to end human piloting of aircraft. Computers can fly planes much more safely than humans, and this has been true now for decades. The public's irrational fear of automation is literally killing people.
Really …. bird strike causing a water landing on the Hudson. Remember that incident and tell the readership, with conviction, that your “Computers” could have saved all those people.
Could it be remedied by a red "STOP CRAZY" button? When one pilot is suspected of being crazy, the red button is pushed and the computer has control of the plane.
" I'm sorry (insert name), I can't take control " ....
'Computers' brought down 2 737-max.
To expand on Trey's point: You can't remove humans from the equation. Humans still write the code the computers run. By taking pilots out of the cockpit, you both remove the ability for human error in the cockpit but simultaneously remove the ability for human input to prevent a catastrophe when the computer inevitably malfunctions. Returning to the MAX, there were multiple instances in the USA where pilots encountered the same unprompted MCAS trim inputs...
To expand on Trey's point: You can't remove humans from the equation. Humans still write the code the computers run. By taking pilots out of the cockpit, you both remove the ability for human error in the cockpit but simultaneously remove the ability for human input to prevent a catastrophe when the computer inevitably malfunctions. Returning to the MAX, there were multiple instances in the USA where pilots encountered the same unprompted MCAS trim inputs as the Lion Air and Ethiopian pilots. The difference is that the US pilots were at altitude in those cases and thus had much more time to diagnose and correct the issue.
stfu eskimo
Would you seriously want to get in a pilotless aircraft for 12 hours. ? There are @ 100, 000 commercial flights a day.
@Dusty
You make a good point of pilots with excellent airmanship, which is fewer these days, preventing disasters.
But you need to take into account that, computers could have saved MCAS trim issues, if not better, too.
And the likelihood of total computer failure vs human error.
Reality, these repetitive procedural tasks, including ATC, are better handled by computers.
These are irrational human fears of not being in control even if they can't control...
@Dusty
You make a good point of pilots with excellent airmanship, which is fewer these days, preventing disasters.
But you need to take into account that, computers could have saved MCAS trim issues, if not better, too.
And the likelihood of total computer failure vs human error.
Reality, these repetitive procedural tasks, including ATC, are better handled by computers.
These are irrational human fears of not being in control even if they can't control it.
Look at statistics for fully autonomous cars VS human drivers.
Numbers don't lie.
A separate but related consideration concerns the cognitive state of the pilot at the time of the incident. We cannot know whether the pilot was fully focused on the task of operating the aircraft, or whether personal preoccupations—such as family health crises—compromised his situational awareness. To illustrate this, consider an analogous psychological phenomenon: years ago, I personally experienced profound emotional distress following the end of an engagement. Though I did not contemplate suicide, my cognitive...
A separate but related consideration concerns the cognitive state of the pilot at the time of the incident. We cannot know whether the pilot was fully focused on the task of operating the aircraft, or whether personal preoccupations—such as family health crises—compromised his situational awareness. To illustrate this, consider an analogous psychological phenomenon: years ago, I personally experienced profound emotional distress following the end of an engagement. Though I did not contemplate suicide, my cognitive resources were so consumed by grief that my professional performance deteriorated sharply. In such a distracted state, it would have been easy to commit a serious, even life-threatening error—such as failing to observe a stop sign or running a red light—simply because my attention was not fully attuned to the immediate demands of the situation. In saying all of that, I still wouldn't fly AI or PIA if you paid me LOL.
To those looking to blame a pilot, consider this:
In 2019, flight ANA B788 at Osaka, both engines fuel cutoff activiated without pilot action. The landing Boeing 787 had to be towed off the runway. Flight AI171 was not the first time.
https://www.financialexpress.com/business/airlines-aviation/ai-171-crash-boeing-787-experienced-fuel-switch-cut-off-in-2019-too-says-us-aviation-expert-japan-pilots-never-touched-it/3917100/
@ David -- Correct me if I'm wrong, but in that incident, I don't think the actual fuel cutoff switches were moved, and instead, a technological failure caused fuel to be cut off? The preliminary Air India crash report specifically references that fuel cutoff switches were moved, which is different than just concluding that fuel was cut off from the engines.
@Ben - The same bureau eventually criticized the very conclusion this article is furthering - odd, no?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/ai-171-crash-aaib-slams-irresponsible-conclusions-after-us-media-claims-says-captain-turned-off-fuel-switches/articleshow/122647752.cms
You can try put Lipstick on a Pig, but it is still Air India.
We should wait unless we have all the proof of what exactly happened?
After the two MAXes went down, we didn’t even know that Boeing had a special software that caused that those planes to crash. So let’s wait for all the facts before we drag somebody’s name down.
yes, Let the authorities do their job impartially and lets not be NTSB investigators.
Totally valid comment. While the information that has been released points in a particular direction, we don’t have all the facts and the final report yet.
There is proof, there is clear evidence in the voice recorder and they aren't releasing it but are releasing inadequate and incomplete reporting on pilot conversations to muddy the clarity of the facts and mire an ugly truth. Of course India's government wants to hide the truth that their pilot murdered 259 people. Why would anyone want to fly them after this, did anyone want to fly germanwings after their incident?
And yet JAL, Egyptair & China Eastern are still flying ...
"And yet JAL, Egyptair & China Eastern are still flying ..."
As is Singapore (SilkAir).
"After the two MAXes went down, we didn’t even know that Boeing had a special software that caused that those planes to crash."
What's crazy, is that people STILL tried to drag those pilots' name into the ground, even after the M.C.A.S. fiasco was revealed. You have people to this day, who are conditioned to think that if only western white supermen had been in the cockpit, all would be well, and those planes would still be flying. (eye roll)
I'll credit the Indian authorities with releasing information that points to an inconvenient truth and doesn't make the erstwhile state carrier look great. However, contrast this to the EgyptAir 990 accident and subsequent conduct of Egyptian authorities. Also, it's important to note it's very early in this investigation.
Don’t forget the Chinese government refused to release details of the China Eastern Airlines accident too.
It's been pretty much established that the plane went down due to fuel cutoff. While switch malfunction and 'accidental bumps' have been mentioned as possible cause, it's pretty much impossible to happen to BOTH switches. Hence, there are almost no other path for this investigation to go than - deliberate act.
to draw such conclusions against the pilots when the reports are so inconclusive is defamatory at best. That too against people who aren't here to defend themselves. Would have expected you to be more circumspect than this. Specially since you were so critical (rightly so) of the way the authorities have handled the investigation and comms.
Respectfully disagree. Ben is simply relaying reporting to us from the WSJ, and, in this post, the title contains the word "focuses." Nobody here or at the WSJ has written, "The captain did it." However, based on the facts available, that is looking like the likely outcome. In spite of that, the door is being left open for other possible causes
What about this - Other sources (not the WSJ) suggest he may have been struggling with depression and mental health in recent years.
“…to draw such conclusions against the pilots when the reports are so inconclusive is defamatory at best.”
US defamation law tends to protect opinions.
Your issue is with the WSJ and/or other sources, as Ben is simply aggregating reporting from elsewhere.
There is no shame in taking an early retirement. Lives could have been spared if Sameed had chosen another path, and indeed was the cause of this disaster.
Very sad and extremely worrying
Not surprising in the least….this was murder when the investigators wanted so badly to be able to blame this on Boeing. Oh well….guess it’s time for some more Yoga
Had there been cameras on the cockpit, there would have been a final report already and we could all move along. But no, millions and years will be spent on an investigation that could have been completed by watching a three minute video.
There is a full recording that they have on the conversations and they are choosing to only mention a part of it to muddy the waters and hide what happened. There is proof but India has a massive incentive to not release the full audio and the truth.
I guess the captain was the PM and first officer was PF whose hands were on the yolk at that particular time.
Whether intentional or not, the good news is that there aircraft itself is fine. So this is now more of a criminal investigation.