Air India Probe Puts Early Focus on Pilots’ Actions and Plane’s Fuel Switches

[Lemon Drop2]

The Pilot's Association of India is upset over the tone of this initial report, saying it has a bias towards pilot error.  They also say there is a lack of transparency in the investigative process, and that pilots are excluded from it. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi...403848.cms

[AllGold]

Well, there wasn't a bias towards pilot error. It was pilot error.

[Black]

Well, there wasn't a bias towards pilot error. It was pilot error.

?  We don't know that.

[GGD]

Next step I would expect is from the timeline, determine what switch should have been switched at about the same time the fuel cutoff switches were thrown (landing gear?), and if there's any indication that they were switched as expected.  And of course figuring out who flipped the cutoffs and what they should have been doing instead.

And really dig into the switch design and the recovered switches to see if there's any chance that they might be like the hatch on Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7.

[AllGold]

Well, there wasn't a bias towards pilot error. It was pilot error.

?  We don't know that.

Fuel pumps were switched off right after takeoff. What else could it be?

[special]

Well, there wasn't a bias towards pilot error. It was pilot error.

?  We don't know that.

Fuel pumps were switched off right after takeoff. What else could it be?

One pilot asks "Why did you cut off the fuel?". The other responds "I didn't".

Was this a pilot error? A sabotage? A technical malfunction that cut off the fuel and the pilot(s) tried to reset by flipping it OFF and back ON? too early to tell.

[RonT (aka Ombligo)]

It's time to install "dashcams" in the cockpits to see what the pilots are actually doing.

Yes, I know this is easier said that done. But until recently, most black boxes only stored 2 hours of voice and data. There are many incidents where the plane landed safely after an emergency but the pilots forgot to pull a fuze and the black boxes kept recording once on the ground and overwrote the critical data. I understand that many black boxes are being upgraded to store 24 hours worth of data.

It's time to consider adding video to the voice recorder.

Mentour Pilot on YouTube is going to do an episode on cockpit cameras and exterior cameras on planes. Petter said it should be released on Monday.

[Black]

Well, there wasn't a bias towards pilot error. It was pilot error.

?  We don't know that.

Fuel pumps were switched off right after takeoff. What else could it be?

A deliberate act. There must be some sort of miscommunication here because I'm not sure why that needs explaining.

---

Next step I would expect is from the timeline, determine what switch should have been switched at about the same time the fuel cutoff switches were thrown (landing gear?), and if there's any indication that they were switched as expected.  And of course figuring out who flipped the cutoffs and what they should have been doing instead.

And really dig into the switch design and the recovered switches to see if there's any chance that they might be like the hatch on Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7.

This has all been covered on the usual aviation channels. The landing gear lever was not actuated despite earlier assumptions that it was based on the wheel position.  The sequence and timing of the cutoff actuation leaves little doubt that it was a human action.  Not enough information has been released to guess at who did or said what but they may or may not have enough info to figure it out- it's going to be a good while until the final report is released.

---

Pretty much everything that can be said at this point is included here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0BetkXsLg&t=559s

[RAMd®d]

This has all been covered on the usual aviation channels. The landing gear lever was not actuated despite earlier assumptions that it was based on the wheel position.  The sequence and timing of the cutoff actuation leaves little doubt that it was a human action.  Not enough information has been released to guess at who did or said what but they may or may not have enough info to figure it out- it's going to be a good while until the final report is released.  .

This.

It was mentioned on this Mentour Pilot episode a criticism that not enough communication of the investigation being released to help quell inadvertent or deliberate misinformation being spread.

That episode made no mention of any Seattle Times article or black box voice recording.

It did mention a scenario where a double engine failure might require both fuel cutoffs to be pulled simultainiously then set back to Run.

This would restart the starting sequence from 'zero' to given the engines the best chance to restart.

If the Seattle Times article is correct, then this wasn't what happened.

So I'm waiting for an official report.

This video mentioned an interim report to be released possibly Friday.

Here's the Mentour Pilot video of the official interim report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0BetkXsLg&ab_channel=MentourNow%21

I'll look at the Seattle Times article in a bit.