Liputan6.com, Jakarta An aviation expert suspects that the Air India plane crash that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad, India, last month was caused by pilot suicide.
Aviation expert Captain Byron Bailey on Thursday (July 17) believed this after various new information began to emerge one by one.
Based on the investigation's results, Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed after the fuel control switch changed its position from "RUN" to "CUTOFF" shortly after takeoff.
The lead pilot on the plane was Sumeet Sabharwal (56), with 15,638 flying hours, while the copilot was Clive Kunder (32), with 3,403 flying hours.
Black Box Investigation
Based on the results of the black box investigation, the plane was flying at 180 knots, or about 333 kilometers per hour, after takeoff.
Suddenly, the fuel switches for both engines were switched from the "RUN" position to "CUTOFF" one after the other.
The fuel supply stopped. The report from the investigation does not explain why the switches changed position.
Cockpit voice recordings recorded confusing interactions between the two pilots, as reported by the New York Times.
In the report, one pilot was heard asking the other pilot why he turned off the engine. The other pilot replied that he did not.
Aviation safety experts say it is unlikely that the switch moved without human intervention, either intentionally or unintentionally. This is because the switch has a locking mechanism.
Expert suspicion
Bailey said on Thursday that he and his colleagues were immediately convinced that the only way the fuel switches could have changed position was because of the lead pilot's hand.
"The first switch, which is just to the right of (the pilot), (was moved) three seconds after takeoff and the second switch one second later," he said, as reported by News.com.au.
Bailey added that the copilot must have been busy flying the plane, so only senior pilots could monitor the flight and move the mechanical switches.
"It takes a huge amount of physical labor to lift the switch, raise it up and lower it back down. So, it has to be done by one of the pilots," Bailey said.
"What is very clear to the pilot is that three seconds after takeoff is the right time to do this," he continued.
He also explained that if done sooner, the pilot in flight would be able to take evasive action and brake, allowing time for the engine to recover.
"We think this was clearly a suicide by the captain," Bailey alleged.
Air India inspection results
Based on Air India's inspection results, the fuel control switches of the airline's Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any issues.
“Over the weekend, our engineering team initiated a preventive inspection of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) locking mechanism on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,” Air India's flight operations department said.
Air India's flight operations department said it had complied with the regulator's directive, as reported by AFP on Thursday (July 17).
“The inspection has been completed and no issues were found,” the department continued.
The department added that all Boeing 787-8 aircraft have also undergone Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per Boeing's maintenance schedule, adding that the FCS is part of this module.
The crash killed all but one of the 242 people on board, as well as 19 people on the ground.
In a letter to employees on Monday (July 14), Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said that the investigation into the accident is still ongoing.
He added that it would be unwise to jump to premature conclusions.