Marco Chan, senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University and former pilot, has said that the preliminary report into the crash of the Air India Ahmedabad to London flight on June 12 points towards “a chip malfunction”.
In an interview with Reuters Video, Chan said that he believes the crash was caused by a chip malfunction. He also referred to a previously issued service bulletin from the engine manufacturer advising maintenance of a flawed chip to prevent signal loss.
“I believe the FAA has - together with GE, General Electric, the engine manufacturer - has issued a service bulletin, i.e. I believe it was about 11,000 cycles, they will have to replace the chip. And if it is not replaced or maintenance isn't done correctly, it could lead to intermittent loss of signal. Once you have a loss of signal, the fuel isn’t commanded i.e. in the cut off position, then there's no fuel going to the engine,” he said.
Also Read | What AAIB preliminary report into the Ahmedabad Air India crash reveals and what it doesn't
{{/usCountry}}Also Read | What AAIB preliminary report into the Ahmedabad Air India crash reveals and what it doesn't
{{/usCountry}}The senior lecturer added that the chances of the pilots accidentally moving the switches into the cutoff position are close to zero.
“You have to physically sort of - not pull the pin - but if you have to pull the toggle out, then it can move to a different position. So, you do have to do it on purpose, not accidental knocking it to the wrong position. Very rarely that can happen, or close to zero,” he told Reuters video.
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The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) preliminary report into the Air India flight 171 crash, released early Saturday, identified fuel being cut off to both engines shortly after takeoff as the cause of the disaster.
Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI 171 en route to London Gatwick had crashed into a medical hostel complex soon after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 241 persons out of the 241 onboard. Another 19 people were killed on the ground.
It is the worst civil aviation disaster in over a decade globally, and the worst in India in more than 30 years.
What the report said
The AAIB report, published a month after the disaster, provided the first official account of India’s worst aviation accident in decades.
The report said that the fuel control switches of the flight were found in the “cutoff” position.
“At about 08:08:42 UTC (1:38pm, 42 seconds) 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,” stated the report, before stating: “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so”.