Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed near Ahmedabad Airport in India on June 12 this year, leaving only one person alive out of the 242 people on board. According to the cockpit conversation record in the “black box”, the fuel switch of the aircraft engine was turned off by the captain, and the co-pilot questioned the captain’s action and expressed surprise, and became nervous and panicked, but the captain remained calm. The preliminary investigation report previously released by the Indian authorities did not specify whether the engine fuel switch was turned off accidentally or intentionally.
The Wall Street Journal reported that from the latest exposed details of the Air India crash investigation, it can be seen that the more senior captain Sumeet Sabharwal is now the focus of the investigation.
According to the “black box” record, after the plane took off from the runway, the co-pilot Clive Kunder asked Sabharwal why he turned the fuel switch to the “cutoff” position. Kunder first expressed surprise, then became nervous and panicked, but Sabharwal remained calm. Sabharwal, 56, has decades of experience as a pilot, while Kondel is only in his early 30s.
An American pilot who has read the Indian authorities’ investigation report on the crash said that it was Kondel who actually operated the plane at the time. During the climb phase, he may have held the joystick with both hands, while Sabharwal was responsible for supervision, with his hands free to do other things.
According to the investigation report, the two switches were adjusted continuously, with an interval of only one second, and about ten seconds later, the two switches were turned on again.
The Wall Street Journal reported that as more details were exposed, some American officials’ arguments gained more support, that is, criminal agencies should join the investigation of this air crash. In the United States, if air crash investigators believe that the cause of the incident may be related to crime and is not a simple safety accident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies will participate in the investigation.
Relatives, friends and neighbors said that Sabharwal spoke softly and was inspired by his father who once worked at the Indian Civil Aviation Authority to choose to enter the aviation industry and take good care of his sick father. Sabharwal began his career as a pilot in the early 1990s, attending the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, a flying school run by the Indian Civil Aviation Authority.
