WASHINGTON — A cockpit voice recording from last month’s tragic Air India crash suggests the flight’s captain may have deliberately cut off fuel to the engines, according to a source familiar with an early assessment by U.S. aviation investigators.
The recording, reviewed by U.S. officials, captures a tense exchange between the two pilots of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner just moments before the aircraft crashed in Ahmedabad, India, killing 260 people — including 19 on the ground.
The first officer, who was flying the aircraft at the time, can reportedly be heard asking the captain why he moved the fuel switches to a position that would cut off engine power. He also pleaded with the captain to restore the fuel flow, the anonymous source told Reuters. While the assessment is not yet part of a formal U.S. government report, it points toward the captain’s possible role in the fuel cutoff.
Although no cockpit video footage exists confirming which pilot physically flipped the switches, the audio evidence strongly suggests it was the captain, according to the early investigation findings.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report about this Flight Crash similar details about what is now the deadliest aviation accident worldwide in more than a decade.
India’s Aviation Authority Cautions Against Early Conclusions
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the official probe, pushed back on international media coverage. In a statement issued Thursday, the agency warned against “selective and unverified reporting,” stressing that the investigation remains ongoing and no definitive cause has been established.
“Most air accidents are caused by a chain of factors,” the AAIB said, adding that a final report under international standards is expected within one year of the crash.
Preliminary Report: Fuel Cutoff Happened Seconds After Takeoff
A preliminary report released Saturday revealed that shortly after takeoff, the fuel switches for both engines were flipped from “run” to “cutoff” — just one second apart. The aircraft lost thrust almost immediately, and a backup energy source called the ram air turbine (RAT) was deployed, indicating both engines had lost power.
Despite automatic attempts to restart the engines, the plane — now too low and too slow — began to descend. It reached just 650 feet in altitude before losing control. The aircraft clipped trees and a chimney before crashing in a fiery explosion into a nearby medical college campus. Of the 242 passengers and crew on board, only one survived. Nineteen others were killed on the ground.
The AAIB report also revealed cockpit audio in which one pilot asked the other, “Why did you cut off the fuel?” — to which the other replied, “I didn’t.”
However, the report did not confirm which voice belonged to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal or First Officer Clive Kunder. Sabharwal had over 15,600 hours of flight experience, while Kunder logged more than 3,400 hours.
No Mechanical Issues Found, Says Air India CEO
In an internal memo, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson stated that the preliminary findings show no signs of mechanical or maintenance faults. All required checks and procedures had been completed prior to the flight, he said.
The AAIB report also made no safety recommendations for Boeing or GE, the manufacturer of the aircraft’s engines. After the report was made public, both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing issued internal advisories reaffirming that the fuel switch locks on Boeing aircraft remain safe.
U.S. Safety Board Closely Involved
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been actively assisting with the investigation. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed that her team helped extract and analyze data from both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
“The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare but tragic events,” Homendy said in a statement. “If no immediate safety issues are found, we need to know that too.”
Experts Call for Cockpit Cameras
Aviation safety expert John Nance said the evidence increasingly points to human error — specifically, a crew member switching off the engine fuel supply. “There’s no other rational explanation based on what we know so far,” he told Reuters.
However, Nance cautioned that investigators must thoroughly explore all potential contributing factors. He also renewed calls for the aviation industry to install cockpit video recorders to provide more transparency in crash investigations.
“This is a case where video evidence could have made a huge difference,” he added.