Soon after India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released the preliminary report into the AI 171 accident on July 12, An Etihad Airways Boeing 787 aircraft underwent a fuel control switch locking mechanism inspection.
The Airways issued an engineering work order for the aircraft that diverted back to Abu Dhabi minutes after it took off for Hyderabad.
The locking mechanism of fuel control switches on Boeing aircraft is at the centre of investigation into the June 12 Air India AI-171 Boeing 787 accident which killed around 270 people.
According to the reports, the directives said that engineers to inspect whether the locking mechanism on the fuel control supply switches in the said Boeing 787 aircraft (registration number: A6-BLI) is working.
Why is this particular locking feature on Boeing aircraft in focus now?The AAIB report said that fuel control switches on Air India B787 transitioned from “Run’’ to ‘’Cutoff”’ three seconds after the aircraft lifted off from Ahmedabad runway.
“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off (the fuel supply). The other pilot responded that he did not do so”.
Fuel control switches have two modes, Run, to start and continue the fuel supply and Cut-off to discontinue the fuel supply.
