OMG: Air India 171 Investigation Leaked TERRORISM - Fuel Switches SHUT OFF

A critical clue has been found in the

Air India 171 accident that killed

nearly 300 people. It has been almost a

month since the accident and we're

finally getting a hint as to what could

have happened. Hey everyone, meet Kevin

here. I am a licensed jet pilot and

we've been covering the Air India story.

We just now have information out from

sources familiar with the investigation

that is about to be released with a

critical detail of what may have gone

wrong in the Air India 171 crash. Now,

keep in mind, everybody's been

captivated by this news because we're

worried. Oh my gosh, do we need to be

nervous about planes just falling out of

the sky on takeoff? This is really

weird. It's nerve-wracking. This is

scary. Is it safe to fly? And mind you,

while in America we have over 45,000

deaths a year from car travel, we have

fewer than 350 per year aviation deaths,

which means basically all US deaths

almost occurred for an entire year in

that one accident. Of course, in India,

it's scary. It shows the immensity, an

entire year's worth of a country's

deaths all compressed into one accident

essentially. It's scary. So, it's made a

lot of us nervous about what could have

gone wrong. We've speculated that, well,

we've seen the ram air turbine deployed.

Maybe this was because of some kind of

catastrophic electrical failure. But

planes don't lose thrust because of a

catastrophic electric failure. Did some

kind of catastrophic electric related

failure lead to a dual fedc reversion in

the engines leading to a loss of thrust?

Boy, that's a crazy lineup of the Swiss

cheese. That just seems like a very

weird alignment of events. Or is it

possible that something else went wrong

with the engines like fuel

contamination, vapor lock? Well, we

didn't he it's very rare for jets to

have a vapor lock issue. It's usually

something you consider in pistons can

happen in jets and fuel contamination.

No other aircraft had fuel issues that

day. Now, while regulators did go

investigate Air India after the accident

and issue citations for things that they

could do better along with other

airlines, this is the same routine thing

that happens in the United States. After

something goes wrong or there's a report

or something, investigators come in and

issue citations because that's how we

show that they're doing their job. Well,

it turns out that now there is a new

update. Air India 171787

Max 8 crash caused by quote fuel switch

mistake. H this is not something that is

usually a mistake. Let's read and then

I'll add. Investigators are looking into

the deadly June 12th crash of Air India

171 and have begun focusing on a

potentially crucial element. The

aircraft's engine control fuel switches.

According to multiple media reports

citing aviation sources, the switches,

which regulate flow to each engine, are

now at the center of the inquiry into

what caused the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to

plummet seconds after takeoff. The

report by Air Current, so this is re

reported from the original report from

Aircur, an aviation focused publication,

says multiple individuals familiar with

the ongoing investigation, so they could

be wrong. We don't actually have the

official release yet, right? But they

are suggesting that analysis of the

aircraft's blackbox data has pointed to

a possible movement of the switches.

What? Wait a second. If these fuel

control switches were in the off

position, the aircraft would have lost

engine power during taxi. You wouldn't

have even been able to complete the

runup process for turning your engines

on. Because on Boeings, you turn the

engines on. Once you get to about 25%,

you throw those fuel switches on. Every

aircraft obviously a little bit

different, but generally these switches

are going to be in the on position.

If you turn them off during taxi, the

engines are going to shut down. If you

turn them off before takeoff, not only

are you going to get errors and cast

messages on your primary and and you

know multi-function displays, but you're

not going to take off. Anyone who's in a

pilot seat, either left or right, is

going to command an aborted takeoff. So,

it is unlikely these switches were in

the inappropriate position because a we

wouldn't have made it from the gate to

the runway. certainly wouldn't have been

able to take off with these in the off

position. So that means if these

switches did indeed get switched off, we

then wonder were these switches

accidentally switched off? Were they

bumped off? Well, in order to understand

a little bit about these switches, which

you can see graphically right here, fuel

control, you have two settings, run or

cut off. Well, they look like normal

little switches. You could just

accidentally brush your hand over and

switch off, right? Wrong. Because the

aircraft that I fly has exactly the same

style of switches. We actually use the

switches for our ignitions, not for our

uh for fuel cut off. We have fuel flow

switches in a different location. But

when we look at uh in the similar

location, we look at our ignition

switches, we have the same sort of

knobs. And the way these work is once

they're in the on or auto position, you

can't push them down. So if a child

walks up and tries to push them down or

somebody drops something on them or

tries to push them down, they won't go

down. In order for you to push them

down, you actually have to pull them out

and then they release past the little

metal barricade that prevents them from

going down. So you have to lift them up

and then you can click them down to the

down position which makes the accidental

shut off of these switches extremely

unlikely. They are also for example in

our aircraft nowhere near or even

similar in style to the flap handle.

This is not a switch that you would ever

in training go to during a flight. This

is not a a a switch that you

accidentally Oh, I meant to reach the

flaps and I happened to cut off both

fuel switches. No, no, no. Because even

if you accidentally cut off one of the

switches, you would have a single engine

failure and you should have still still

been able to fly. Now, we would have

likely seen some adverse yaw, although

Boeings have some pretty good adverse

yaw prevention in the event of a single

engine failure. likely you're still

going to see something, some evidence

that you have thrust in one engine. And

pilots all of the time are trained to

deal with this. You're going to pitch

for V2, some like to say, or your single

engine rate of climb. Some just level

off to the horizon, wait until they get

coordinated with their rudder to make

sure they don't play stall out the plane

and then get to their climb again. There

are many different strategies for what

to do in an engine failure, but this is

something that pilots train all of the

time. So even if one of them were

inadvertently shut off or intentionally

shut off

the second one or the second engine

since these control fuel flow to each

independent engine, left switch, left

engine, right switch, right engine, you

would not have this dual engine failure

and this aircraft accident. So this then

begs the question, why would somebody

turn both of these switches off? If

indeed it is true that both of these

switches were turned off, it means after

the aircraft rotated. So in other words,

after our takeoff, we're up in the air.

At that moment, somebody

made the decision to turn both of those

switches off, which you would never ever

do in flight unless an e emergency

procedure called for it. Certainly

unlikely during takeoff there would ever

be a reason for that.

And usually you only turn these off when

you actually get to engine shutdown and

you're parked at your gate and you're

ready to turn the plane off. So what

could have happened is that on takeoff,

the pilot in command, now this is my

speculation, okay?

Whoever we don't we don't necessarily

know who was flying the aircraft, left

seat or right seat. Usually what happens

is the left seat flies the plane as the

captain and the right seat ends up

operating flaps and radios. And

generally you'll see a rotation. So

you'll actually see them switch seats.

So it could have been the first officer

who was flying this time or it could

have been the primary pilot in command

who was flying. We don't exactly know.

Either way, somebody would have been in

control of rotating this aircraft. Now,

just so you could see what I'm referring

to, here's a video that I posted called

Dangerous Jet Landing, Phenom 300E,

worst turbulence yet. And this is

actually the takeoff portion of the

video, which I put towards the end

because it was less eventful. But what I

want you to do is I want you to see the

takeoff. And I want you to see that when

I when we call V1 and rotate, I will

actually move my hand from the thrust

lever from that center console where

those fuel switches are. And I will move

both my hands to the yolk, which Boeings

use yolks as well. And I will rotate by

pulling with both hands back on that

yolk, which means my hands are not at

the center console and I'm focused on

taking off, which does afford an

opportunity for when we call for flaps

to go up. the non-flying pilot to have

their hands in that center console,

manipulate the flap switches, but

potentially also shut off those fuel

valves in a malicious act, which is a

form of terrorism

that could be consistent with having

enough thrust to take off, then all of a

sudden almost simultaneously losing fuel

to both engines. Here again, a normal

takeoff.

Power brakes off. Right.

Your speed allowed three ways.

70. Sure.

See that helicopter coming over? That's

what I was worried about.

Hey, B1, rotate. The helicopter is no

factor. B2.

Positive. Both hands. You're up.

I got that helicopter in sight. No

factor. I'm going to start turning left

though. helicopter 6 05 north back with

the option report on negotiation flap

the option.

So there's obviously a lot to do here

and I'm flying in this example here in a

single pilot configuration where you

actually see that I'm operating the

gear. I'm operating the flaps. Typically

uh in a dual pilot Boeing setting you

would have one person who's not on the

yolk operating the flaps and the gear.

They would be operating those after the

pilot in command calls for it. So, uh,

this is scary because it suggests

terrorism is a potential option here. I

don't see how this could be a quote

unquote mistake because you can't take

off in this configuration. You just

wouldn't you wouldn't have the fuel.

Your engines would just shut down. You'd

shut down on the runway. So, it had to

have happened after takeoff. It remains

unclear whether the controls were

shifted intentionally, mistakenly, or as

a result of a malfunction. It seems

unlikely that the switches could be

moved as a malfunction or as a mistake.

And then both of them, it's not like

these switches just break. And even if

they did break, both of them, very odd.

Each of the two engines has a switch

with two positions. Running cut off.

Shifting the switch to cut off while

airborne would immediately shut down

fuel to that engine. It still run for a

few seconds. you know, it takes a little

bit of time, but once that line is

clear, yes, you would lose thrust uh and

disable the generators that supply

electricity and much of the plane

systems. That's why that ram air turbine

would deploy.

You just can't bump them and expect them

to move. The switches are used during

ground operations during starting or

shut off. Exactly. Uh adding to the

intrigue is any lack of any formal

safety communication from Boeing or GE.

Uh since the initial blackbox data was

examined by Indian authorities June

25th, aviation experts say this silence

may indicate that a mechanical fault is

not the leading theory behind the crash.

Right? They're basically saying, "Hey,

Boeing or GD GE didn't publish any kind

of like urgent recalls, right?

This is scary because it does mean that

it is possible that this was terrorism,

which is again comforting for all other

planes, but also gives me a lack of

faith in just humanity in general that

somebody would choose to do this if

indeed that's what it turns out happened

here.

Why not advertise these things that you

told us here? I feel like nobody else

knows about this.

We'll we'll try a little advertising and

see how it goes.

Congratulations, man. You have done so

much. People love you. People look up to

you.

Kevin Praath there, financial analyst

and YouTuber. Meet Kevin. Always great

to get your take.