The pilot of the doomed Air India flight is said to have deliberately cut off fuel to both engines in an "eerily calm" manner seconds after takeoff.
A preliminary report into the crash released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so."
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the 56-year-old pilot, flicked the aircraft’s fuel control switches to the "cut-off" just moments after lift off.
First Officer Clive Kunder reportedly asked: “Why did you cut off" with the captain replying: "I didn’t." Sabharwal then stayed eerily calm as the aircraft plunged to the ground.
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|Debris of the crashed Air India flight
Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, CCTV footage showed a backup energy source known as a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines.
The London Gatwick-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 650 feet, the jet started to fall.
The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to run, and the airplane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said.
But the plane was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told reporters.
The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787.
LATEST ON THE AIR INDIA CRASH
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|Debris crashed into the side of the medical campus
Former senior official at the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Ben Berman told the Wall Street Journal: "There was nothing to prompt the crew to perform emergency procedures, become stressed, or do anything except rotate the nose up and retract the landing gear, like they had done so many times before."
Meanwhile, aviation expert and veteran pilot Captain Steve Scheibner said he believes the crash may have been the result of a human act inside the cockpit.
He said accidental flicking is "virtually impossible"
Captain Scheibner told Piers Morgan Uncensored: "I really firmly believe that there had to be a human hand on both of those for them to go to cut off."
REUTERS | Smoke rises amidst debris after an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, IndiaCaptain Sabharwal had an airline transport pilot's licence that was valid until May 14, 2026.
He had obtained clearances to fly as pilot-in-command on several aircraft including the Boeing 787 and 777 and the Airbus A310
Sabharwal had called his family from the airport, assuring them he would ring again after landing in London, according to a Times of India report.
A pilot who had briefly interacted with him told reporters he was a "gentleman."
First officer Kunder had a commercial pilot licence that was issued in 2020 and valid until September 26, 2025.