REPORT GIVES BASIC INFORMATION
The preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults on the Air India Boeing Dreamliner, and that all required maintenance had been carried out.
Asked if there should be more checks on fuel control switches given the lack of answers on how the controls moved, Mr Chow pointed out that the authorities and manufacturers had not yet issued any guidance.
There has been no factual evidence to support the conclusion that immediate action was needed to be taken on similar planes, he added.
Mr Chow also noted that in aviation investigations, the preliminary report only serves to provide the public with some basic facts to prevent unnecessary speculation.
Now that the report has been released, a more thorough investigation will take place before a final report, he said.
The authorities and manufacturers will likely look at the plane’s engine start system once more.
“A month is a bit hard for them to do all that stuff,” Mr Chow said.
Should they find nothing, the investigators will then look at other possibilities, such as the background and behaviour of those in the cockpit, he added.
“Now the focus is entirely on the start switch. And if the start switches are working properly, then it must be (that) somebody moved it,” he said.
“Who, is the question.”
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said in an internal memo on Monday that the probe into the crash is “far from over”. He added that the airline is open to further inquiries and warned against “premature conclusions”.
The memo said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.
ALPA India, which represents Indian pilots at the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations, has rejected any presumption of pilot error and called for a “fair, fact-based inquiry”.
“The pilots had passed their mandatory pre-flight breathalyser and there were no observations pertaining to their medical status,” Campbell noted in his memo.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association also said it was “deeply disturbed by speculative narratives … particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide”.
“There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage,” it said in a statement on Sunday, adding, “it is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved”.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/air-india-crash-report-fuel-control-switches-mystery-5236941
