New Delhi – The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has expressed strong dissatisfaction over the preliminary probe report into the June 12 Air India crash in Ahmedabad, calling the findings “premature and irresponsible.” The pilots’ body has raised serious concerns about being excluded from the investigation and warned against assigning blame without a full and fair inquiry.
“Assigning blame before a thorough, transparent, and data-driven investigation is both premature and irresponsible. Such speculative commentary undermines the professionalism of highly trained crew members and causes undue distress to their families and colleagues,” the FIP said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The preliminary report, released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on July 12, revealed that both fuel control switches of the London-bound AI171 flight were moved from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ within seconds of takeoff — a critical detail that has triggered widespread speculation.
The report also quoted a cockpit exchange between the two pilots, Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder:
One pilot asked, “Why did you cut off?”, to which the other responded, “I did not do so.”
While many interpreted this as pilot error, the FIP strongly objected to such conclusions, criticising the selective use of cockpit voice recordings.
“The report, as released, lacks comprehensive data and appears to rely selectively on paraphrased cockpit voice recordings to suggest pilot error and question the professional competence and integrity of the flight crew. This approach is neither objective nor complete,” the pilots’ body stated.
They urged that no assumptions should be made based solely on preliminary findings.
In the aftermath of the report, India’s civil aviation regulator DGCA ordered inspections of the fuel control switch locking mechanisms across Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft. In response, Air India confirmed that its engineering teams had completed the inspections and found “no issues” with the switches.
The Air India AI171 flight, headed to London from Ahmedabad, crashed just seconds after take-off on June 12, killing all 260 people on board, including 241 passengers. The preliminary findings were released exactly a month later.