Too early to draw conclusions on Pilots' role in A-I crash: Ex-AAIB chief

It will be too premature to draw conclusions on the role of pilots from the preliminary investigation report into the fatal crash of Air India plane last month and the final report will mention about the most probable cause for the accident, former AAIB chief Aurobindo Handa said on Sunday.

A day after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report into the crash that killed 260 people, he said, "We should allow AAIB to complete the investigation in a fair, unbiased and transparent manner."  Handa has investigated more than 100 aircraft accidents, including the Air India Express plane crash in Kozhikode in 2020.

"AAIB has done a good job. Going forward, they will now focus to find out as to why and how these fuel switches moved and whether there could have been any mechanical and/or electrical failures/malfunction," he told PTI.

The report, released on Saturday, said the fuel switches of the crashed Boeing 787-8 plane's engines were cut off within a gap of one second, and later switched on.

From the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he did cut off the switch and the other pilot saying he did not do so.

The report did not mention which pilot asked the question and which pilot responded.

The co-pilot was Pilot Flying (PF), and the Pilot In Command (PIC) was Pilot Monitoring (PM) for the flight.

"It will be too premature to draw any conclusions, including the role of one of the pilots from the AAIB's preliminary investigation report on Air India flight 171... we should allow AAIB to complete the investigation in a fair, unbiased and transparent manner," Handa said. 

The Pilot In Command (PIC) was 56-year-old Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and the First Officer was 32-year-old Clive Kundar. Sabharwal's flying experience with 787 was more than 8,596 hours, including 8,260 hours as PIC, while Kundar's flying experience with this type of aircraft was 1,128 hours.

Kundar was pilot flying while Sabharwal was pilot monitoring for the AI 171 flight operated with the nearly 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

According to the preliminary report, both pilots had adequate rest period prior to operating the flight.

"In some quarters, especially in foreign media, there are endeavours to indicate that one of the pilots could have been at fault. Yet again, I would like to request our veteran aviators to refrain from any sort of speculation," Handa said.

The AI 171, operated with a nearly 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 aircraft, flying from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick crashed into a building soon after takeoff and 260 people died. Out of the 242 people onboard the plane, only one survived.

On Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said one should not jump into any conclusions on the role of pilots in the Air India plane crash and there are multiple things that need to be looked into before preparing the final investigation report.