Air India Pilots Tried to Restart Engines Before Crash, Says Ex-Aviation Minister
Former Civil Aviation Minister and trained pilot Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that both pilots of Air India Flight AI-171 attempted to relight the engines before the aircraft crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 but did not have enough altitude or time for the engines to recover.
Speaking in Delhi after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report, Rudy stated the aircraft was airworthy with no reported defects before takeoff. He said the Boeing 787-8 took off normally, but the pilots noticed a drop in engine power shortly after becoming airborne.
The AAIB report revealed that both engines flamed out just 65 seconds after takeoff, prompting the crew to attempt an emergency relight by switching the fuel controls back to “RUN”. Rudy said Captain Sabharwal and the co-pilot relied on their experience and initiated the procedure, successfully recovering Engine 1 while Engine 2 faced delays.
However, the low altitude meant the aircraft did not have sufficient time or height for the automatic Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system to restart both engines. Rudy noted that if the incident had occurred at 10,000 feet or higher, the system would likely have restarted both engines, potentially preventing the crash.
The former minister added that the area around the airport, with ongoing construction, further limited the pilots’ options during the critical moments before the crash.
Rudy highlighted that the AAIB report indicates the pilots may not have followed the official memory checklist fully during the relight attempt. However, he emphasised that the pilots made every effort to recover the engines, but the situation developed too quickly.
The AAIB’s 15-page report released earlier detailed that the fuel cut-off switches for both engines moved from “Run” to “Cutoff” within one second, causing a sudden dual-engine shutdown. The reason for the switches moving remains under investigation, with no blame assigned yet.
