The preliminary report on the horrific June 12, 2025 crash of Air India’s B787-8 Boeing at Ahmedabad, that killed 241 of the 242 people on board and another 19 people on the ground, by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is causing quite the kerfuffle because of what it says and what it does not say.

Notwithstanding that it is a preliminary report, apart from the obvious cause of this disquiet over the discovery that fuel switches were cut off within seconds of the takeoff depriving fuel of the two engines, what jumps out at is this observation in the 15-page report. In the section titled progress of investigation, the report says, “At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to B787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers.”

That is quite an extraordinary observation, virtually granting a clean chit to both aircraft and engine manufacturers. One might argue that this is a preliminary report, and things could change but it is nearly impossible to envision a situation where the bureau can now make a 180 degree turn and find mechanical problems attributable to either manufacturer in its final report.

Engine cutoff enigma

Of course, the crux of the report is the finding that “the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another within a time gap of 01 sec. The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off. In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so.”

Since the fuel cutoff switches have to be manually handled, the speculation now is whether it was done by one of the two pilots and, if so, why. At the same time though, the cockpit voice recording has an exchange between the two where one is asking the other why he switched off the fuel supply and the other says he did not.

Experienced pilots

One has to bear in mind that the two pilots, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, and First Officer Clive Kunder, 32, were very familiar with the aircraft. Captain Sabharwal had logged approximately 15,600 flight hours, including nearly 8,600 hours on the Boeing 787 and Kunder had around 3,400 flight hours, with over 1,100 hours on the 787. It is impossible to imagine that either of them was not fully knowledgeable that turning off and turning on fuel switches is a function that requires deliberate physical action. It could not have been done accidentally.

Equally importantly, both, being aware that everything that they were saying was being recorded for posterity, did have that exchange where one asked if the switches were cut off and the other said no.

Inevitably, the report has unleashed calumny against the two pilots attributing to them all manner of motives, including suggesting that it was a suicide mission. That is deeply disturbing because the report itself does not say anything of the sort. It sticks to the factual chronology of events analyzed with considerable professional expertise.

It is hard to speculate what the final report will be but if the preliminary report sets any trajectory, it is clear that the final conclusions will not be any significantly different. For instance, the final report could not possibly come out with findings that are diametrically opposite to what we know now. It is seriously doubtful if even the final report will be able to clearly establish whether the fuel switches were deliberately turned off by one of the pilots since there is clear denial in the cockpit voice recording.

No ascribing blame

Of all actions that are absolutely clear to airline pilots, not going anywhere close to the fuel switches once the aircraft is airborne is one of them, unless of course there is an emergency that demands that fuel supply be cut off to an engine. As a rule, this is done only once the aircraft has landed and is close to the passenger disembarking operation.

The preliminary report does not directly establish blame even while noting that the fuel switches were turned off within 01 second as well the exchange between the two pilots. At the same time, it makes no immediate recommendations to the two manufacturers. As it stands now, till the final report is out, it is still open-ended as to what went on inside the cockpit.

(The writer is a Chicago-based journalist and analyst. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at mcsix@outlook.com)