Air India investigates Boeing 787 fuel control switches, finds no issues

Air India's inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said.

The switches have come under scrutiny following last month's crash of an Air India jet, which killed 260 people, after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from the run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.

India's aviation regulator ordered the country's airlines this week to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.

The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.

However, it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Earlier, the FAA formally declared that fuel control switches used in Boeing aircraft, including the 787 Dreamliner, did not pose a safety risk. The FAA clarified that although the 2018 bulletin had urged carriers to inspect locking mechanisms on fuel switches due to reports of them being installed with the locking feature disengaged, this recommendation was advisory and not mandatory.

Air India's probe found no problems with the locking mechanism.

"Over the weekend, our engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of fuel control switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft," the airline's flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.

"The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator's directives.

It said all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone "throttle control module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule", adding that the FCS was part of this module.

Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.

Singapore found them all to be "functioning properly".

"Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot's Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements," an SIA spokesperson told AFP this week.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad to London. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, as well as 19 people on the ground.

A report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which cited unidentified sources, said a cockpit recording of a conversation between the two pilots indicated the captain had cut off fuel to the engines.

News agency Bloomberg also reported that a cockpit voice recording of doomed Air India flight 171 indicated the younger co-pilot asked his more experienced colleague why he turned off the plane’s fuel-supply switches, citing people familiar with the matter.

The information, from people who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak publicly, revealed for the first time who said what in the flight deck. The exchange was first mentioned in last week’s preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) probing the June 12 crash, but without identifying the speakers.

AAIB had said it was still "too early to reach any definite conclusions".

It said the investigation's final report would come out with "root causes and recommendations". 

"We urge the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," it said in a statement. 

The report had shown two fuel switches in the cockpit were moved to a cut-off position, causing the Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner to lose lift and crash 32 seconds after takeoff. The other pilot had denied turning off the switches, according to the AAIB, which had extracted data from the cockpit voice recorder.

Aviation experts had speculated that it was first officer Clive Kunder who had posed the question to captain Sumeet Sabharwal given Kunder was the pilot flying and would have had his hands full — one on the yoke commanding the widebody into the skies, and the other on the throttle controlling the aircraft’s speed. The Wall Street Journal previously reported who said what in the exchange.

The initial investigation showed that the fuel-control switches were turned off immediately after the plane departed. While the move was reversed about 10 seconds later, it was too late to avert the crash.

How and why the switches came to be turned off — cutting the flow of fuel to the engines — are now the key lines of inquiry for investigators. Officials are probing whether it could be the result of a failure of the plane’s systems or human error. 

And while the new details add fresh perspective on the confusion in the cockpit during the 32 seconds between takeoff and crash, investigators still haven’t drawn any definitive conclusions.

The cockpit recording could be even more revelatory, according to Michael Daniel, a retired Federal Aviation Administration inspector and accident investigator.

“There are multiple microphones around the cockpit including their headsets,” said Daniel.

The mic positions means it’s possible that it captured and discerned not just the sound of the fuel switches being turned off, but the direction from which it came in the cockpit — offering investigators definitive information as to who cut off fuel supply to the planes engines, he said.

With inputs from AFP and Bloomberg.