A leading aviation safety expert has suggested that the fatal crash of Air India Flight 171 may have been the result of deliberate human action, raising, for the first time, the possibility of a pilot-induced crash. Captain Mohan Ranganathan, one of India’s leading aviation experts, has pointed to the sequence of fuel cutoff switches and cockpit audio to suggest that the crash may have stemmed from deliberate actions taken in the cockpit, potentially even suicide.

When NDTV asked if one of the pilots intentionally switched off the fuel, fully aware that doing so could cause a crash, Captain Ranganathan said, “Absolutely.”

“It has to be manually done,” Captain Ranganathan told NDTV when asked if there is any way fuel can be shut off to the engines of the Dreamliner. “It cannot be done automatically or due to a power failure because the fuel selectors are not the sliding type. They are designed to stay in a slot, and you have to pull them out to move them up or down. So, the possibility of inadvertently moving them to the “off” position doesn’t arise. It’s definitely a case of deliberate manual selection to move it to ‘off’.”

His remarks come just 24 hours after India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) published its preliminary findings into the June 12 crash, which killed 241 people onboard and 19 more on the ground. The crash marked the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft entered commercial service in 2011.

The Crash

Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at precisely 13:39 IST, en route to London Gatwick. On board were 228 passengers and 14 crew. Thirty-two seconds later, the aircraft lost thrust in both engines, dropped altitude rapidly, and slammed into a medical hostel just 1.2 nautical miles from the runway end.

READ | NDTV Decodes: Engines Shut, Fuel Cut Off – Inside Doomed Air India Flight

Only one person survived-the passenger seated in seat 11A, a British citizen of Indian origin.

Airport CCTV footage, flight data from the aircraft’s Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR), and cockpit voice recordings from the CVR offer a disturbing reconstruction of the last seconds of Flight 171.

The Manual Switch-Off

According to the AAIB report, both fuel control switches governing engines 1 and 2 were turned from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” within one second of each other. The switches, located on the central pedestal of the cockpit, are protected by a guard rail and require deliberate effort to toggle. They are not touch-sensitive and cannot be triggered by turbulence, power failure, or software glitch.

“I’ve heard that the captain had some medical history. Nothing else explains why, at the takeoff point, just as rotation starts, both switches are moved one after the other to the ‘off’ position. It has to be deliberately done. According to the cockpit voice recorder, one pilot asks, ‘Why did you do it?’ and the other pilot responds, ‘I did not do it.’ This is where the report shows some discrepancies, almost like a cover-up,” Captain Ranganathan told NDTV.

READ | “Don’t Jump To Conclusions”: Aviation Minister On Air India Crash Report

“It’s mandatory for all pilots to use headphones during takeoff and landing. The cockpit voice recorder will clearly indicate whether the audio comes from CAM 1 (captain) or CAM 2 (co-pilot) based on the cockpit area microphone. So, using vague terms like ‘one pilot said this and one pilot said that’ is very poor reporting,” he added.

As per cockpit procedures, the pilot flying (PF) — in this case, First Officer Clive Kunder — would have had both hands on the control column during takeoff. The pilot monitoring (PM), Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, would have had free hands. That point, Captain Ranganathan said, is crucial.

“The report also clearly states that the captain was the pilot monitoring, and the co-pilot was the pilot flying.” he added. “The pilot flying has both hands on the control column during rotation, as it’s not automatic. They are focused on rotating the aircraft and setting the autopilot, so both hands are occupied. The pilot monitoring, however, is the only one with free hands. Using vague terms to suggest otherwise seems misleading. The action was deliberate, which is why I said it has to be manually done.”

Possible Medical History

Captain Ranganathan claimed that several serving Air India pilots had informed him that one of the flight crew members had a known medical history and had been on extended medical leave prior to the crash.

“I’ve heard that several pilots at Air India reported that the captain had a medical condition and was on medical leave for some time. If top management was unaware of this, I’d be surprised because many line pilots knew about it,” Captain Ranganathan said.

READ | Both Engines Shut Down Within Seconds Of Take-Off: Air India Crash Probe Report

The AAIB report confirms that both pilots were medically certified and had passed their annual checks. But Captain Ranganathan urged a deeper investigation into the psychological and behavioural health of the crew, not just in the days before the crash, but over the preceding months.

“They would need to look at the last few months to determine if the pilot was on medical leave and why. All of that has to be thoroughly investigated. I’m not an active pilot anymore, but if I’m hearing this feedback from pilots who are still flying, there’s got to be a reason for it,” he told NDTV.

Precedents And Parallels

Pilot-induced crashes are rare, but not unprecedented. Captain Ranganathan cited the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash in 2015, in which the co-pilot deliberately flew the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard.

Other such suspected incidents include EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999), SilkAir Flight 185 (1997), and China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 (2022). In the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, many experts believe the pilot may have deliberately diverted the aircraft before it disappeared.

“I was in Singapore when the SilkAir crash occurred, and I gave evidence against that captain. The Indonesian authorities tried to downplay it as a mechanical failure, but the NTSB established it was a pilot suicide. Then you have Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Germanwings, EgyptAir Flight 990, and the one in China a few years back. These incidents have happened worldwide. When someone is under stress or a combination of stress and depression, it can create this kind of situation. I’m not making this statement without going deliberately into the past cases,” Captain Ranganathan said.

He said many Indian airlines and even the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have failed to adopt mental health safeguards for pilots, despite repeated warnings.

“It’s not just the airline’s fault; it’s also the regulator’s responsibility. One key issue is flight time limitations and rest periods. Over the last 10-15 years, pilots have been pushed to their limits, leaving them with little family life. You hear of many families breaking up, and this kind of stress can lead to various reactions,” Captain Ranganathan said.

“No airline in India maintains a psychiatric profile of its pilots during medical evaluations. Some of us have been warning about this, but it falls on deaf ears. People prioritise connectivity and schedules, treating pilots like machines rather than human beings. Neither airlines, the regulator, nor the judiciary in India fully understand what fatigue and stress can do, and now we’re paying the price for that,” he added.

Aviation Minister’s Remarks

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)’s report on the Ahmedabad-London Air India plane crash last month is based on preliminary findings and one should not jump into conclusions till the final report is released, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said on Saturday.

Hours after the AAIB’s preliminary report was released, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu urged not to jump to conclusions until the final report is released.

“I don’t think we should jump into any conclusions over this. I believe we have the most wonderful workforce of pilots and crew in the whole world. I have to appreciate all the efforts the pilots and crew of the country are putting; they are the backbone of civil aviation. They are the primary resource of civil aviation. We care for the welfare and well-being of the pilots also. So let us not jump into any conclusions at this stage and wait for the final report,” said.

“There are technicalities involved. It will be very premature to comment on the report. The preliminary has come in but we have to wait for something concrete to come in,” he added.

Disclaimer: The article contains views of Captain Mohan Ranganathan, one of India’s leading aviation experts, and not of NDTV.