• India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau urges against drawing 'conclusions through selective, unverified reporting'

ISTANBUL

A black-box recording has revealed that the captain of the Air India flight that crashed last month, killing 261 people, turned off the fuel switches after taking off from the western state of Gujarat in India, according to media reports.

The first officer, who was operating the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, questioned the more experienced captain about why he moved the switches to the "cutoff" position after takeoff, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an early assessment by US officials on the probe.

The first officer expressed surprise and panic during the incident, while the captain remained calm, according to the report on the probe.

The June 12 crash involved 242 people aboard, of whom only one survived after jumping from the plane. The passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. The crash also caused 19 fatalities on the ground.

Veteran pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder were operating the aircraft.

US pilots who reviewed the report suggested that Kunder, who was actively flying the plane, was likely occupied with controls, while monitoring Captain Sabharwal was free to manipulate switches.

The report states the switches were flipped off one second apart and turned back on about ten seconds later. Shortly after, the plane crashed near Ahmedabad airport.

However, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) Thursday urged against drawing "conclusions through selective and unverified reporting.”

“We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,” it said.

Stating that the investigation by AAIB is still not complete, the agency said: "The final investigation report will come out with root causes and recommendations.”

Indian authorities’ preliminary report did not reach any conclusions about what led to the crash, or why the fuel switches were turned off, according to the report.

Some US officials stated that the incident should be subject to a criminal investigation if there is the potentiality of a crime, rather than a safety mishap, as is the custom in the US.

This week, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson advised the airline’s employees not to make early assumptions about the crash and emphasized that the investigation is still ongoing.

Wilson also declined to comment on the pilots.

A spokesperson for Air India stated that the company remains fully cooperative with the inquiry and noted that there was "no issue with the quality of fuel and no abnormality with the take-off roll.”

Shortly after the preliminary report was released, the Airline Pilots' Association of India said its tone “suggests a bias toward pilot error.” Rejecting what it referred to as a “presumption,” the group called for a “fair, fact-based inquiry.”