Aviation Experts Raise Boeing 787 Design Flaw Concerns After Air India Crash Engine Shutdown
There are some safety measures that are mandated because they’re considered essential to flight safety that’s why they’re issued as airworthiness directives.
Hyderabad:Aviation experts are raising serious concerns about a possible design flaw in the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner Air India aircraft that crashed last month after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), in its preliminary report, spotted the sudden shutdown of the fuel control switch mechanism.
V. Mallikarjun, a senior retired air traffic controller, pointed to the photographic and video evidence showing that the ram air turbine (RAT), a small emergency power unit that deploys only during total loss of engine power, had activated on the ill-fated plane. “The RAT deployed immediately after take-off, which confirms a total loss of engine power. It only activates when both engines fail, that’s a major sign of what went wrong,” said Mallikarjun said.
Regarding the AAIB reporting that one of the pilots aske the other if he had cut the fuel switches, to which the other replied in the negative, Mallikarjun noted that it showed that even the crew didn’t fully understand what had triggered the engine shutdown.
He said there could be three possible explanations for the development: A manual shutdown, an inadvertent action or a technical failure in the fuel control switch mechanism. “Switching off these switches by accident is extremely unlikely,” Mallikarjun said. The fuel control switches are deliberately designed with a three-step locking mechanism lift, shift and lock to prevent unintended movement.
“This isn’t something that can happen just by brushing against it and for both switches to move from ‘Run’ to ‘Cut-off’ during the climb phase raises serious questions. If it wasn’t a manual action, then there may have been a deeper issue, possibly a design flaw,” Mallikarjun said.
Captain Suman Saurabh, flight instructor, explained that those fuel control switches were designed with a locking mechanism. “You can’t just flip them accidentally. Even if someone brushes against it, it won’t move completely to the cut-off position. Pilots are well aware of the consequences no one would do that knowingly. This strongly suggests a possible design fault.”
He also referred to the pilots’ conversation and said it pointed clearly away from human error. “If this happened due to an electrical trigger, it could only occur if there’s a flaw in the switch design or an associated system,” Capt. Saurabh said.
A similar concern was raised in the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s (AAIB) investigation into a Boeing 747 incident in 2014, which revealed that electrical faults had contributed to multiple system failures mid-flight. Aviation analysts like ‘Mentour Pilot’ on YouTube have pointed out that such scenarios are not uncommon, especially in older aircraft where maintenance or redundancy systems may be strained.
There are some safety measures that are mandated because they’re considered essential to flight safety that’s why they’re issued as airworthiness directives. Others are advisory in nature, which is why they’re categorised as optional. But even advisory bulletins, like the one issued by the US’s Federal Aviation Administartion (FAA) in 2018 regarding the fuel control switches, can highlight serious underlying issues. “Ignoring them can lead to tragic consequences,” Capt. Saurabh added.
To this, Captain Arun Chauhan, said: “It is not possible for the fuel control switches to move to ‘cut-off’ on their own. If both engines shut down within a second and neither pilot admits to having done it, it strongly points to a technical malfunction or design flaw rather than human error.”
