Air India crash fuel switches turned off

[limetrees32]

I've not found a thread on this , although it's taken me so long to search out the knowledgeable posters
on the Washington crash that there probably is one now.
But @notimagain what do you think ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/11/engine-fuel-switches-cut-off-before-air-india-crash-that-killed-260-report-finds

There's a bit of speculation about the modification state of the switches in question maybe being a factor but having read (the very comprehensive) interim report last night what seem to have happened is pretty much inexplicable other than as a deliberate act..

Now whether it was malicious, or whether it was a complete brain fart (aka these days as an action slip), no idea.

Thank you @notimagain ,I knew you could be relied on to have looked into this and have a considered and informed opinion.
I wonder if it could have been an "action slip" ? Confusion with similar switches?
Terrible.

Action slip has entered my vocabulary and I predict that I will be regularly using.

Good exploration on PPRUNE. I think the consensus is veering towards deliberate act.

I don’t understand this well so sorry if this is a stupid question but why? For what motive?

To die, and kill others in the process. See also Germanwings Flight 9525 and MH370.

@HelloGreen goodness knows about possible motive.
I can't believe that this is something that anyone in a rational state of mind would do , so perhaps there was no motive?
Or no rational motive ITMS.

The pilot was a very experienced flyer who was on the point of retiring to take care of his elderly dad. Was it the co-pilot? Seems bizarre.
I don't know anything about aviation.

There is an amazing man on you tube called Mentour Pilot. He will no doubt cover this. His videos are clear, thoughtful and well informed. He waits till all the information is gathered then presents it.

Bloody hell😟

And yes, love Mentour pilot too, really good channel and I’ve done almost all of his vids now.

Apparently the two fuel cut off switches had a safety / lock mechanism to prevent accidental flicking. According the Guardian article today, this must have been unlocked, then each switch was pressed around 1 second apart. One pilot is heard saying to the other “why have you pressed those switches”.

Just been reading about the Germanwings flights …..

Agree. Also Pilot Debrief with Hoover.

It is not - there is no consensus yet. There was a known issue with the switches in the past, and there are also theories of electrical problems:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gy78gpnqo

True. My take was veering that way given what the alleged pilots of similar aircraft have said in light of above. I hope clear facts will emerge in time.

Love him! Yes don’t expect an immediate video from him he will wait for as much information as can be gathered

He actually presented a live on Thursday night after some preliminary reports had been released and he talked about the fuel switches and how it has to be a deliberate manoeuvre to disarm them.
And he did another live last night after more had been released and I was shocked to hear his take on it.

And yes, I agree with you, he’s great. He’s knowledgeable and informative and very thorough in his analyses.

At this stage it’s looking shockingly like a deliberate act could have taken place but it’s very hard to even consider that someone could do such a thing.

The switches are not press/push swiches, there's no fancy lock or safety mechanism (you can't make the switches too complex to move because in some emergencies you need to.cut the engine(s) off fairly rapidly.

The switches are fancy toggle switches (bit like up/down light switches), the latch is a spring mechanism that holds the switch in "cutoff" or "run" (sort of on/off notches.)..

So to move the switch you have to slightly pull out of the latch before moving it. ..there is also a small guard on both sides of the switch panel to stop them being knocked.

Problem with any mystery short circuit theories is that we know the switches were physically moved to "cutoff", there was very brief discussion about it, basically WTF, on the flight deck.

Ref Mentour and the like, he's good but just like the rest of us, he's speculating..albeit he is reasonably informed.

Very good comments on the times article on this from a pilot. You absolutely can't shut off the fuel by accident and they did turn it back on and attempt to restart the engines.

Turning it back on makes the suicide theory a bit less obvious to me but then again nothing else makes sense if there wasn't a mechanical problem.

It's a shame the conspiracy theory merchants are so prevalent especially on such a 'normal' human tragedy

Chances are the other pilot turned them back on again. They didn’t need to be turned off a second time, the engines had already run out of time to recover.

. You absolutely can't shut off the fuel by accident and they did turn it back on and attempt to restart the engines.

For info if you cycle the fuel control switches through cutoff and back to run the engines will shutdown instantly as a result of the "cutoff" command but will then go automatically into a restart process once "run" is selected.

Problem is the restart process takes a heck of a long time (personally only ever saw the process in the simulator on a very similar aircraft type different engines and don't have the book numbers easily to hand) ...

Chances are the engines were restarting but the Air India crew simply ran out of time

They would have known they didn't have enough time to cut fuel and restart the engines. You simply don't mess with things until you have climbed to 400ft, preferably 1000ft. Even if the plane was on fire you concentrate on getting the thing safely into the air above all else, then you deal with your other problems.

Exactly..

Just to be clear I wasn't saying the switches were cycled as part of some emergency procedure such as "dual engine failure".

The point I was making was once the switches had gone to cutoff for whatever reason the combination of altitude,.speed and relight time made recovery impossible.

The pilot who did it could also be the one who speaks…