Boeing Dreamliner system can cut off fuel without pilot's intervention: Top aviation expert reveals amid ongoing Air India crash probe
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Boeing Dreamliner system can cut off fuel without pilot's intervention: Top aviation expert reveals amid ongoing Air India crash probe")
Boeing Dreamliner system can cut fuel without pilot's intervention: Top aviation expert reveals amid ongoing probe Photograph: (Credit: PTI)
In a recent interview, aviation attorney and former US Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo cautioned against drawing conclusions and blaming the pilots for the unfortunate incident that claimed 260 lives in Ahmedabad on June 13.
The Air India aircraft crash incident investigation is underway, and initial reports point to the fuel being cut off. The cockpit conversation between the two pilots also surfaced, where one asked the other if he could turn the fuel off, and he said no. There after speculation began. In a recent interview, aviation attorney and former US Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo cautioned against drawing conclusions and blaming the pilots for the unfortunate incident that claimed 260 lives in Ahmedabad on June 13.
Speaking to independent journalist Burkha Dutt, Schiavo highlighted episodes in the past where Boeing Dreamliners were involved and the system has cut off fuel to the engines on its own without human intervention.
She said, "In about 75% of the cases, the pilots are blamed — and in many cases, we've been able to disprove that. It is not only unfair but simplistic and harmful to blame the pilots… there are too many suspicious things to say, 'Oh, it's the pilots'.”
Citing the 2019 All Nippon Airways incident, she said the Boeing 787's system erroneously cut off fuel mid-air, after the system misjudged that the plane had landed, while it was still continuing its journey.
Schiavo continued, "That system — TCMA — has already been faulted in a prior incident. It can and will cut the thrust to both engines if it malfunctions. There have already been two interesting, somewhat similar situations on the All Nippon Airways flight back in 2019," she said. "As the plane was coming into land, the fuel control cut off occurred. The plane itself cut off the fuel to the engines. The plane came in like a very heavy glider, but because it was landing, not taking off, there was no crash."
She also referred to a more recent case involving a United Airlines Dreamliner flight between Washington, DC and Nigeria.
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Pointing at a similar incident involving a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Washington, DC to Nigeria, she said, "The plane itself put the plane into a nose dive. There was a thrust issue, there was an engine issue, and the plane experienced some deviations.”