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Preliminary report into Air India crash released

bbc.co.uk

181–190 of 924 posts

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes people put cleaning liquid in the fridge. Given a long enough span of time, every possible fuck up eventually will happen.

Probably time to design a plane that can't be sent into terrain in seconds by flipping a switch.

[deleted]

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire, probably. But also, how complicated would you make the system if you needed to prevent certain switches from working during certain times of flight? At some point... we're all just in the hands of the people in the cockpit.

I can't put my car into reverse gear while driving down the freeway.

There’s no good reason to do that.

There may be a good reason to cut fuel to one engine shortly after takeoff.

You could have a system that prevents both switches being thrown, and only in the specific window after takeoff, but you’ve also now added two additional things that can fail.

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#183
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third, since there's no other plausible explanation for this and China has classified the report. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Eastern_Airlines_Flight_...

Fourth? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370#M...

Fifth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#184

> The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with 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. So the fuel supply was cut off intentionally. The swi…

and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec Or more precisely, the signals which come from them were found to behave as such. Without any audible record of turning the switches off, I wouldn't blame the pilots without first checking the wiring and switches themselves for faults. This reminds me of the g…

I agree, there's a significant distinction between "the switches were (physically) flipped" and "the circuit was opened/closed".

In this case, it may be a moot distinction, particularly if no physical evidence of fault or tampering has been discovered in investigation. But, in theory, very important - there's a lot of potential grey-area between the two statements.

The proximity of the incident to the ground may also increase the possible attack vectors for simple remote triggers.

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#185

> The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with 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. So the fuel supply was cut off intentionally. The swi…

and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec Or more precisely, the signals which come from them were found to behave as such. Without any audible record of turning the switches off, I wouldn't blame the pilots without first checking the wiring and switches themselves for faults. This reminds me of the g…

If that was the case, it does seem a bit odd that there was a one second gap. But yeah, still worth investigating, if that’s even possible given the extensive damage.

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#186

[flagged]

> This was not suicide, or murder-suicide; it was one of the most horrific mass murders in history, in which the guy that did it happened to lose his life in the process. Even taking intent for granted, to deny suicide in a case like this would be to suppose that the person responsible expected to survive while everyone else died . What could possibly support that conclusion?

He appears to have meant something like “this isn’t just common murder-suicide: it is a particularly heinous version of murder-suicide that I wish there were a stronger word for” but phrased it confusingly.

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no possible way to confuse these two actions. There's a reason a wheel is attached to the gear lever.

> There is no possible way to confuse these two actions. This is obviously an overstatement. Any two regularly performed actions can be confused. Sometimes (when tired or distracted) I've walked into my bathroom intending to shave, but mistakenly brushed my teeth and left. My toothbrush and razor are not similar in function or placement.

[dead]

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#188
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know if the mechanical position of the switch guarantees its electronic state without any possibility for hardware malfunction? If no, then you are claiming a person made one of the most grave acts of inhumanity ever. This sounds to me like an electronics issue - an intermittent, inadvertent state transition likely due to some PCB component malfunction

The time between the two switches being activated and then them being switched back on after being noticed strongly suggests that they were actually manipulated. Malice looke very likely to me. An investigation into the pilots life may turn something up, I guess. It’s worth noting that Premeditation or “intention” doesn’t have to factor into this. Studies of survivors of impulse suicides (jumping off of bridges etc)…

> The time between the two switches being activated and then them being switched back on after being noticed strongly suggests that they were actually manipulated

How so? It is just as likely to be an intermitted electronic malfunction.

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#189

Even if the plane had no power, why couldn't they have glided it down safely?

It did glide briefly, the glide path took it directly into a school building.

Right after takeoff at low altitude is basically the worst place for this to happen. Speed and altitude are low so gliding is going to be a short distance and happen quickly.

If there had been a perfect empty long flat grass field in that location it may have been salvageable, but also right after takeoff the plane usually has a heavy fuel load which makes for a much riskier landing.

Edit: This article has a map showing the glide path:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/12/air-india-flig...

Re: Preliminary report into Air India crash released

#190
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly not. It’s a physical switch with no capability of a remote toggle. The flight data recorder clearly shows one was toggled off within a second of the other, which rules out almost every non-intentional scenario.

Is this a switch that has a dedicated connection to the corresponding cutoff valve? Or does it go through some common digital bus that passes commands? If so, how well is this bus protected?

Another commentator has pointed out that the flight data recorder records two signals - one for the switch itself, and one for the actual valve movement.

I take your point that we should always be suspicious of complicated, digital buses, and this is not the final report, so there’s still plenty of time to uncover weirdness. However, if the flight date reporter shows the switch being thrown, and then a few milliseconds later, shows the valve starting to close, and the same sequence happening shortly there after on the second switch and valve, I feel this would really limit the likelihood of any digital shenanigans.

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