Investigators looking into the Air India crash that killed 260 people are trying to uncovering a ‘mistake’ made by the pilots.
Early assessments by US officials suggest the crash was not caused by problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The findings suggest that switches controlling fuel flow to the jet’s two engines were turned off.
This then led to an apparent loss of thrust shortly after takeoff.
Pilots on aircraft use the switches to start the jet’s engines, shut them down, or reset them in certain emergencies.
These switches would normally be on during flight, and it is unclear how or why they were turned off.
The US investigators have said that it is unclear whether the move was accidental or intentional, or whether there was an attempt to turn them back on, according to the Wall Street Journal.
If the switches were off this could explain why the jet’s emergency-power generator—known as a ram air turbine, or RAT was activated before the aircraft crashed.
A preliminary report is expected to be issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau which is leading the probe.
Air India said that Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot who served as the flight’s captain, logged over 10,000 hours flying wide-body, or larger, aircraft.
His co-pilot, Clive Kunder, had over 3,400 hours of experience.
The airline has in recent times worked to turn around its operations after decades under state ownership.
The Air India crash was the first fatal accident involving Boeing’s Dreamliner.
The Dreamliner is used on international, long-haul routes and has an excellent safety record until the Air India crash.
It comes at a time when Boeing is trying to recover from a string of safety and quality problems.
The Air India flight was carrying 242 people from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick before it crashed shortly after takeoff in June.
The plane crashed into a medical college about one mile southwest of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
The aircraft carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian, and seven Portuguese nationals.
A British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is the sole survivor of the plane crash.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.