Air India flight 171 crash: Cockpit audio of pilots, first officer ‘panicking’ — New details revealed

According to the WSJ report citing the audio recording, the first officer, expressing surprise, asked the senior pilot why he moved the switches to ‘cutoff’. He, then, panicked.

New details have emerged in the Air India plane crash tragedy, revealing the conversation between the two pilots in the cockpit of flight 171 just before the Ahmedabad-London flight came crashing down on June 12. A report by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the early findings of the US investigation, revealed “Blackbox recording of dialogue" between Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, revealing for the first time who said what in the flight deck.

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The exchange was first mentioned in last week’s preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Without revealing much, the report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before the tragedy. The report had shown that two fuel switches in the cockpit were moved to “cutoff”, causing Air India flight 171 to lose lift and crash 32 seconds after takeoff.

FIRST OFFICER ‘PANICKED’, OTHER REMAINED ‘CALM’

According to the WSJ report citing the audio recording, the first officer, expressing surprise, asked the senior pilot why he moved the switches to “cutoff”. He, then, panicked.

“While the captain [the experienced one] seemed to remain calm.”

The preliminary report noted an exchange between the two pilots in the cockpit minutes before the Air India crash, but did not clarify which pilot said what. “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off," the interim report said.

The other pilot had denied turning off the switches, according to the AAIB. "The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” it said.

The WSJ report reveals that it was the first officer who asked the captain why he moved the switches to “cutoff”, according to the people who asked not to be identified.

The initial findings have led some US officials to believe that the case warrants a review by criminal authorities, the publication said.