Shocking findings in the Indian Dreamliner plane crash

• The disaster was one of the most tragic in India's history.
• Everyone on board the Boeing died.
• It is still unknown what caused the plane to lose thrust.

On June 12, an Air India Dremaliner crashed in the Indian state of Gujarat, several dozen seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad airport .

The crash killed 290 people, 39 of whom were on the ground. Miraculously, one passenger survived.

The Indian Air Accident Investigation Bureau has just released its preliminary report on the crash of Flight 171.

The plane was in perfect condition and the crew was very experienced

The report indicates that the aircraft was in good condition and the pilots were experienced. The captain had 15,638 hours of flight time, including 8,596 hours in the aircraft type, and the first officer had 3,403 hours, including 1,128 hours in the aircraft type.

What is most surprising is the data regarding the machine's engines.

The report states that fuel supply to the engines was cut off. The engines transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF, remained in that position for 10 seconds, and then fuel supply was restored.

However, during this time the engines slow down to below idle and produce virtually no thrust.

As analysts note, the report is detailed enough regarding the physical events on the plane to understand what was happening, but it does not describe the conversations and actions of the pilots in sufficient detail.

The recording of the pilots' conversations and its analysis may be crucial to the entire case. In the cockpit recording, one pilot can be heard asking the other why he cut off the fuel. The other pilot replied that he hadn't.

According to EAFR data (recordings from the cockpit and aircraft sensors), the RPMs of both engines dropped below their minimum idle speed. As a result, the aircraft's RAT (Ram Air Turbine) activated, powering critical aircraft components.

Although fuel supply to the engines was restored almost immediately, this was irrelevant. It takes about a minute to achieve sufficient thrust, and the plane was hovering just above the ground.

Could there have been a deliberate cut-off of the fuel supply to the machine's engines?

The conclusion of Bjorn Fehrm, head of the Aeronautical Consultancy Company, is interesting.

"Everything proceeds normally during takeoff until the command "GEAR UP" is given and executed. Then the fuel cutoff switches are moved from RUN to CUTOFF," Fehrm writes.

"There's a high probability that this was done by a human, as the switches are secured and won't trip accidentally. The report doesn't mention that this could have happened inside the fuel system. In fact, one pilot asks the other, 'Why did you shut it off?'"—meaning he saw the switches' operation or position, the expert notes.

- Why wasn't the inquiring or responding pilot identified (the captain as the monitoring pilot, or the first officer as the pilot flying?) - wonders the manager.

"Why wasn't the subsequent conversation or the pilots' actions described after this dialogue? Moving the switches to the cutoff position is a serious action that puts the aircraft and all occupants at risk. It's unlikely to be an error, as there's no hand movement in that area during takeoff," Fehrm adds.

Civil aviation knows of cases of deliberate actions by pilots

Although it is difficult to judge the pilots' guilt at this time, there have been cases in the past where aircraft accidents were the result of deliberate actions by the crew.

There was a famous accident in 1997 when a Boeing B737-300 belonging to the Singaporean carrier SilkAir crashed.

The plane crashed into the Musi River, killing all 104 people on board. One of the two causes of the crash was suspected suicide by the pilot.

Because the plane exceeded the speed of sound at the moment of the crash, it shattered into thousands of fragments, some of which sank 5 meters into the riverbed. Some experts believe that the theory of deliberate action cannot be proven.