New Details In Air India Crash Probe Shift Focus To Plane's Captain, WSJ Reports
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The first officer asked the more experienced captain why he moved the switches to the "cutoff" position after it climbed off the runway, the report said.
July 17 (Reuters) - A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper cited people familiar with U.S. officials’ early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people.
The first officer, who was flying the Boeing BA.N 787 Dreamliner, asked the more experienced captain why he moved the fuel switches to the “cutoff” position seconds after lifting off the runway, the report said.
The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
India’s AAIB, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the Wall Street Journal report.
