PIONEER NEWS SERVICE With the preliminary report of the probe into the Air India Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad on June 12 having been released on Saturday, one of the key findings is that both engines of the plane had shut down mid-air within seconds of take-off. Notably, at least 270 people had been killed, including 241 of the 242 on board, in the crash of the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8. As per the probe report, the fuel cutoff switches, which control the flow of fuel to the engines, transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position one after another, within a second of each other. The probe report has quoted the cockpit voice recording: one pilot can be heard asking, “Why did you cut off?” and the other pilot replies, “I didn’t”. The fact that the switches transitioned to ‘CUTOFF’, starving the engines of fuel, is to become the key focus area of future investigation. Data from the black box further revealed that both switches were moved back to the ‘RUN’ position and while Engine 1 showed signs of recovery, Engine 2 could not. “The CCTV footage obtained from the airport showed Ram Air Turbine (RAT) getting deployed during the initial climb immediately after lift-off. No significant bird activity is observed in the vicinity of the flight path. The aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall,” the report states.
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