Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner just crushed in India right after take off. Again Boeing.

[unicorn]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/india/air-india-crash-report-intl-latam

"A cut in the fuel supply to the engines caused last month’s Air India crash that killed 260 people, a preliminary report has found. The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport when it hurtled back to earth. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger. According to the report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, obtained by CNN, the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, starving the engines of fuel.

Investigators were able to get data out of the plane’s “black box” recorders, including 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including from the crash. The aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines’ fuel cutoff switches were “transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,” according to the report. “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report reads. Shortly after, the switches were reversed back to where they should have been, and the engines were in the process of powering back up when the crash happened..."

We may never know, but this could have been a deliberate murder-suicide à la German suicidal pilot.

[PeterRS]

9 minutes ago, unicorn said:

We may never know, but this could have been a deliberate murder-suicide à la German suicidal pilot.

Indeed, we may never know, but somehow I suspect this is not similar to the German Wings crash. Although we do not know the mental state of the two Air India piots, we did learn following the German WIngs crash that the co-pilot had quite serious mental problems which included thoughts of suicide. He had earlier been hospitalised for depression.

When searching his apartment a few days after the crash investigators found a doctor's letter declaring the co-pilot was unfit for work. As a result of doctor/patient confidentiality in Germany, the doctor could not pass any medical information on to the airline. 

Investigators also found he was taking two anti-depressants, escitalopram and mirtazapine, and a sleep medication. All were found in his body. Apparently escitalopram is associated with suicidal thoughts, especially soon after treatment is commenced. He had been prescribed this drug nine days earlier. Criminal investigators then discovered on his computer "ways to commit suicode" and "cockpit doors and their security provisions." As if this was not enough, doctors were aware that for years he had feared he was going blind. He had consulted no less than 40 doctors and feared his pilot's licence could be revoked. He should never have been in a cockpit, but German Wings did not know that in advance.

[Travelingguy]

In many ways, the preliminary findings are reassuring with regard to a safety problem with the 787.  This seems most likely to be a mass murder suicide, or less likely an accident.

The German Wings pilot flew into a mountain and killed everyone.  But when you are learning to fly, you learn very quickly that a crash on take off is usually a fatal event.  Whereas crashes on landing, especially in small planes, tend to have lots of damage to the plane, but fewer fatalities.  They teach you this, because everyone is so afraid of landing with the ground coming up to meet you.  But the take off is more dangerous and you need to respect the take off, be on your game and following your checklists and have a plan if you lose an engine.

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, Travelingguy said:

In many ways, the preliminary findings are reassuring with regard to a safety problem with the 787.  This seems most likely to be a mass murder suicide, or less likely an accident.

 . . . But the take off is more dangerous and you need to respect the take off, be on your game and following your checklists and have a plan if you lose an engine.

Sorry but I do not agree with the murder/suicide theory for the very reasons i outlined in my earlier post. The co-pilot of the German Wings plane had a long history of psychiatric problems, had ingested a cocktail of drugs no active pilot should be taking, and had previousy researched suicide and how to lock cockpit doors tightly. Presently we have no reason to believe that either of the Indian cockpit crew had suicide on their minds.

The key question surely is: why did both fuel switches turn to off within a second of each other? I accept one pilot could have done it but as the co-pilot was flying the plane, it would have to have been the senior pilot who activated the switches. Both pilots denied responsibility just prior to the crash. The captain had logged 8,596 hours on the 787. It is impossble to believe that he had accidentally turned both switches off - each action itself requiring two actions. But for the time being it must remain one possible theory.

My primary concern is much more all the very major problems the 787 has experienced in the production plant in North Charleston, a totally new facility for Boeing plane manufacture. Books and endess articles have been written about this and whistleblowers have added to Boeing's problems. One whistleblower died the day before he was due to give testimony to Congress! All of which may mean nothing. But then the 787 problems keep cropping up, many just this year. The Dreamliners have been grounded several times, once when Boeing itself grounded 8 of them after discovering structural problems. More recently KLM has grounded 7 of their 787s, 30% of its long haul fleet. British Airways grounded 4 of its 787s for months, and has announced it expects to experience regular 787 groundings this year. 

Sam Selehpour, one of the whistleblowers, went public on the NBS Nightly News claiming there are small unplugged gaps in the welding of sections of the fuselge that could result in the plane literally coming apart. in mid-air.  Boeing has warned several airlines of design problems with the rear fuselage. Just this year, all airlines were ordered to ground their 787s for inspections. This is a plane that clearly seems feted to suffer major flaws. Could a computer malfunction - or indeed an unknown function as on the 737 Max crashes - be to blame? Eventually we will find out.

I often refer to the professional pilots website pprune.org but it is based in the USA and has not yet caught up with the AAIB findings.

[unicorn]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Sorry but I do not agree with the murder/suicide theory for the very reasons i outlined in my earlier post. The co-pilot of the German Wings plane had a long history of psychiatric problems, had ingested a cocktail of drugs no active pilot should be taking, and had previousy researched suicide and how to lock cockpit doors tightly. Presently we have no reason to believe that either of the Indian cockpit crew had suicide on their minds...

Well, I doubt the evidence will ever be is iron-clad as the German Wings case, in which the evidence of murder-suicide was overwhelming. That being said, two fuel cut-off switches were flipped over, one right after the other. The other pilot became alarmed and switched them back, but too late. Any theory as to the ultimate cause has to take those facts into account. I suspect that the pilots' recent events/activities will now be researched. Murder-suicide was also postulated in that infamous Malaysian Airlines disappearance. 

Also from the CNN article: "...On the 787, the fuel cutoff switches are between the two pilots’ seats, immediately behind the plane’s throttle levers. They are protected on the sides by a metal bar and have a locking mechanism designed to prevent accidental cutoff...". So it's hard to imagine that the flipping of both fuel cut-off switches was accidental.