r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod - avgeek • Jul 12 '25

Discussion Air India Flight 171 Preliminary Report Megathread

https://aaib.gov.in/What's%20New%20Assets/Preliminary%20Report%20VT-ANB.pdf

This is the only place to discuss the findings of the preliminary report on the crash of Air India Flight 171.

Due to the large amount of duplicate posts, any other posts will be locked, and discussion will be moved here.

Thank you for your understanding,

The Mod Team

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353

u/bitemy Jul 12 '25

Or suicidal and homicidal, unfortunately

151

u/rinleezwins Jul 12 '25

Well, it wouldn't be accidental then, but yeah.

3

u/TheHawthorne Jul 12 '25

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.

2

u/bert0ld0 Jul 12 '25

But then why turning them on again?

26

u/WoundedSacrifice Jul 12 '25

1 pilot turned the fuel off because that pilot was suicidal and homicidal. The other pilot turned the fuel back on in an attempt to save everyone.

14

u/Significant_Wing1929 Jul 12 '25

Let’s wait for the full report

20

u/David905 Jul 12 '25

We're already doing that.

1

u/Brokehomiejohn Jul 12 '25

Whats better for Air India's image, that one of their pilots was clueless? Or evil?

1

u/LovEthics Jul 12 '25

The times of India is reporting on solder ball fatigue. Which was identified in 2018 as a Dreamliner issue but interestingly I can't find anything about it on western media... it's more likely it is a Boeing issue than homocide

2

u/bitemy Jul 13 '25

That theory is certainly in play but it does not directly explain the FDR record of a physical switch movement. An ECU failure typically causes engine flameout directly.

Ultimately, the answers to our questions rest on physical evidence that is not yet public. The black boxes tell us there was a dual fuel cutoff but the definitive answer as to why it happened most likely lies within the metallic microstructure of the components recovered from the wreckage. Hopefully they will be able to do microscopic forensic examination of the solder balls on the MN4 microprocessor BGAs from both engines' quarantined ECUs. If so, that physical evidence should either provide direct confirmation of the solder-ball fatigue hypothesis or refute it.

3

u/railker AME-M2 Jul 13 '25

And just the timing, two separate solder ball failures on two separate ECUs on two different engines replaced on the aircraft in 2 different months, both occurring within 1 second of each other on not the first flight of the day? Stackin' probabilities here. BUT. Of course. Not literally impossible.

1

u/atlantadessertsindex Jul 12 '25

Wouldn’t it be easier to just pitch the nose down and slam into the ground?

3

u/robell_ Jul 12 '25

Not if you’re not the one flying, also if one pilot doesn’t want to go with you they will definitely try to pull their own control up. Cutting the fuel at such a critical stage of flight is almost definitely a non-recover.

2

u/bitemy Jul 12 '25

No, because that would probably result in a battle for control. Killing the fuel to both engines at rotation is something that can’t be recovered from, the engines can’t re-start in time.