Revealed: Air India pilots’ final words to each other before crash that killed 241 people on board

The final words shared by the pilots of the Air India crash, which tragically claimed the lives of 241 passengers, have been revealed – and it may hold a vital clue as to what caused the crash.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed mere minutes after it had taken off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12, plummeting into a residential area, called Meghani Nagar, while claiming 19 more lives of those on the ground.

Now the final conversation between the doomed aircraft’s pilots could shed light on what happened in those final moments, as one asked why the plane’s fuel had been cut off shortly before the crash.

Amid the perplexity, one can be heard asking the other why ‘did you cut off’ the fuel supply, while the other responded he ‘didn’t’, according to a report by Indian authorities.

It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight’s captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by the co-pilot, Clive Kunder, nor which pilot immediately transmitted the distress call: ‘Thrust not achieved… falling… Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is thought to have lost power when the fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped, starving the engines of fuel, according to the report by Indian accident investigators.

The pilots’ exchange prompts a key question over the crash – who could those fuel switches, which are designed to be ‘highly reliable’ and are constructed to stop unintentional activation, be accidentally flipped mid-flight?

Each lever has to be pulled upwards to be unlocked, before it can be flipped and they also have further protective guard brackets to safeguard against any bumps and nudges.

‘It would be almost impossible to pull both switches with a single movement of one hand, and this makes accidental deployment unlikely,’ a Canada-based air accidents investigator told the BBC.

John Cox, U.S. aviation safety expert, said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. ‘You can’t bump them and they move,’ he said.

But the plane only ever reached as high as 625ft, immediately beginning to lose thrust and sink down moments after setting off to London, later exploding into a fireball after smashing into a hostel on the ground in Gujarat, killing all but one on board.

Investigators’ early assessments indicate no apparent fault with the Boeing or its engines, suggesting that Boeing and engine maker GE had no apparent responsibility for the accident.

The report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, published late on Friday, said the jet was carrying 54,200kg of fuel, which was within the ‘allowable limits’. Fuel samples retrieved from the aircraft’s refuelling were also deemed ‘satisfactory’.

‘The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,’ the report said.

Investigators are currently focusing on a previous Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018, which said some Boeing 737 fuel control switches were put into the aircrafts with the locking feature disengaged.

Although the problem was never deemed unsafe, an Airworthiness Directive (AD), which is legally enforceable, was issued to correct the problem with some of the levers.

Boeing 787-8 aircrafts, as well as the Air India plane, use the same design switch. And due to the SAIB being recommended, Air India did not carry out advised inspections.

All pilots and crew had passed breathalyser and were deemed fit to fly, according to the report, which detailed how both Sabharwal and Kunder had enough rest before taking to the skies.

At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position with the report detailing there had been indications of both engines relighting before the low-altitude crash.

Referring to data recovered from the plane’s two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFR), it continues: ‘As per the EAFR, the Engine 1 fuel cutoff switch transitioned from CUTOFF to RUN at about 08:08:52 UTC. The APU Inlet Door began opening at about 08:08:54 UTC, consistent with the APU Auto Start logic.

‘Thereafter at 08:08:56 UTC the Engine 2 fuel cutoff switch also transitions from CUTOFF to RUN.

‘When fuel control switches are moved from CUTOFF to RUN while the aircraft is inflight, each engine’s full authority dual engine control (FADEC) automatically manages a relight and thrust recovery sequence of ignition and fuel introduction.’

Flipping to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines, and is most often used to turn engines off once a plane has arrived at its airport gate and in certain emergency situations, such as an engine fire.

The preliminary report does not indicate there was any emergency requiring an engine cutoff.

The new findings appear to tally with theories reportedly put forward on the US side of the investigation, which also noted that the switches controlling fuel flow to the aircraft’s twin engines were turned off shortly after takeoff.

It remains unclear why they were turned off, and investigators have been left wondering whether it was deliberate, accidental or corrected too late.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, one potential sign that the switches were off was the deployment of the plane’s emergency power system, a ram air turbine or RAT.

The RAT usually comes into action when both engines lose power or if pressure in all three hydraulic systems are critically low – both essential components of keeping a flight going. The landing gear was also found in a downward position.

Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline accident investigator and aviation expert at Ohio State University said: ‘The deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) strongly supports the conclusion that both engines had failed’

He believes the pilot at the helm of the aircraft had no time to think. According to investigators, crew tried to act but the crash transpired to quickly.

If the preliminary findings hold, that would exonerate the Dreamliner’s manufacturer Boeing and engine developer GE Aerospace.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said: ‘At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to Boeing 787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers.’

The agency, an office under India’s civil aviation ministry, is leading the probe into the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade.