- The gut-wrenching and horrific Air India Boeing AI 171 Dreamliner accident that left everybody on board killed, except one miraculous survivor, was met with evident urgency by the concerned stakeholders. For what was at stake was not only to restore the credibility of the airlines but also to reassure the shaken passengers to regain confidence in the ability of the airlines and the aircraft to transport them safely. As you know, we have been told that air travel is the safest mode of transportation that humanity has ever discovered, duly supported by the statistics. Road accident deaths in India are at 271 per day, a monumental statistic that should prompt the authorities to act on a war footing. But the AI 171 Dreamliner accident jolted everyone badly. That’s a fact.
PC: Fortune India
- The investigation to look into the cause of the accident was promptly ordered. However, the unsigned AI 171 accident report patently fails to meet the test of credibility as revealed by the same. If the sole purpose of investigations is to meet deadlines, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has done well. International rules gave it 30 days to submit a preliminary report about June 12’s AI 171 Dreamliner crash, and it pushed 15 pages past the finish line last week. Unfortunately, most experts have assessed the report to be short on substance. Preliminary reports cannot be conclusive, but they should begin to shed light. Families of the 270 deceased and the rest of humanity are none the wiser.
PC: Mid-day
- Further, the report’s authors admit that no definitive cause has been determined at this stage. All we know for sure now is that three seconds after takeoff, the fuel supply to both engines stopped. Two possibilities arise. A pilot cut it off by flipping two switches – one for each engine. Or that the switches were faulty. Without facts, plausibility is a matter of preference. Are humans more fragile than mechanical devices? Deliberately switching off engines at 650ft is suicidal, yet some would subscribe to this view. Disconcertingly, the issue with AAIB’s reports is that it appears to push this possibility, much to the chagrin of the pilots’ fraternity. It says one pilot asked the other why he had flipped the switches, and the other replied he hadn’t.
PC: STV News
- Moreover, we don’t know the pilots’ exact words, nor who asked and who answered. We don’t know what was said before or after either. Just two cherry-picked sentences paraphrased in a way that slyly implicate the two pilots who cannot defend themselves anymore. If pilot dialogue is material to the probe, so is the fact that seven years ago, the US aviation regulator found fuel control switches used in some Boeing 737s – similar to Dreamliners – had been installed with their locking feature disengaged. VT-ANB, the lost Dreamliner, was built four years before that discovery. No active airline pilots were part of the investigation, and that the report was submitted unsigned raises more questions. No insinuations, please. Reveal the findings details forthwith.
