July 17 (Reuters) – A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper cited people familiar with U.S. officials’ early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people.

The first officer, who was flying the Boeing BA.N 787 Dreamliner, asked the more experienced captain why he moved the fuel switches to the “cutoff” position seconds after lifting off the runway, the report said.

The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.

India’s AAIB, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the Wall Street Journal report.

A preliminary report into the crash released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday said the fuel switches had switched from run to cutoff a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were flipped.

One pilot was then heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.

Without fuel flowing to the engines, the London-bound plane began to lose thrust and sink. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines.

At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position and there had been indications of both engines relighting before the low-altitude crash, the report said.

In an internal memo on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.

The AAIB’s preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE GE.N.

After the report was released, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed and four sources with knowledge of the matter said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Additional reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)

July 12 (Reuters) – A preliminary report into the Air India crash that killed 260 people last month showed three seconds after taking off, the plane’s engines fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff, starving the engines of fuel.

The Boeing BA.N 787 Dreamliner immediately began to lose thrust and sink down, according to the report released on Saturday by Indian aviation accident investigators.

One pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.

It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight’s captain and which by the first officer, nor which pilot transmitted “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” just before the crash.

At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position and the report said there had been indications of both engines relighting before the low-altitude crash.

Both pilots were experienced jet pilots with about 19,000 total flying hours between them, including more than 9,000 on the 787.

The preliminary report also does not say how the switch could have flipped to the cutoff position on the June 12 London-bound flight from the Indian city of Ahmedabad.

U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said a key question is why were the switches moved in a way that is inconsistent with normal operations.

“Did they move on their own or did they move because of the pilots?” he asked. “And if they were moved because of a pilot, why?”

U.S. aviation safety expert John Cox said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. “You can’t bump them and they move,” he said.

Flipping to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines. It is most often used to turn engines off once a plane has arrived at its airport gate and in certain emergency situations, such as an engine fire. The report does not indicate there was any emergency requiring an engine cutoff.

“At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to Boeing 787-8 and/or GE GE.N GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers” India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said.

Air India, Boeing and GE Aerospace did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The agency, an office under India’s civil aviation ministry, is leading the probe into the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade.

The plane’s two black boxes, both combined cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders, were recovered in the days following the crash and later downloaded in India.

Black boxes provide crucial data such as altitude, airspeed and final pilot conversations which help in narrowing down possible causes of the crash.

Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, with a preliminary report due 30 days after the accident according to international rules, and a final report expected within a year.

Air India has been under intense scrutiny since the crash.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it plans to investigate its budget airline, Air India Express, after Reuters reported the carrier did not follow a directive to change engine parts of an Airbus A320 in a timely manner and falsified records to show compliance.

India’s aviation watchdog has also warned Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides and in June warned it about “serious violations” of pilot duty timings.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board declined to comment on the release of the report.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy had previously urged the Indian government to be transparent in the interest of aviation safety.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru and Aditya Kalra and Abhijith Ganapavaram in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, David Shepardson in Washington and Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago; Writing by Dan Catchpole; Editing by Jamie Freed)

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III and other members of the royal family in uniform wore black armbands and observed a moment of silence during his annual birthday parade Saturday as the monarch commemorated those who died in this week’s Air India plane crash.

Charles requested the symbolic moves “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy,” Buckingham Palace said.

An Air India flight from the northwestern city of Ahmedabad to London crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. The plane was carrying 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. One man survived.

In addition to being Britain’s head of state, Charles is the head of the Commonwealth, an organization of independent states that includes India and Canada.

The monarch’s annual birthday parade, known as Trooping the Colour, is a historic ceremony filled with pageantry and military bands in which the king reviews his troops on Horse Guards Parade adjacent to St. James’ Park in central London.

The military ceremony dates back to a time when flags of the battalion, known as colours, were “trooped,″ or shown, to soldiers in the ranks so they could recognize them.

Charles, wearing a scarlet military uniform, traveled to Horse Guards Parade in an open-topped, horse-drawn carriage accompanied by Queen Camilla.

Prince William and other uniformed members of the royal family rode behind the king on horseback, followed by Kate, the princess of Wales, and her three children in another open-topped carriage.

The festivities featured 1,338 soldiers, including 244 musicians, who paraded past the king following the moment of silence for those affected by the Air India disaster.

The royal family then returned to Buckingham Palace, where they appeared on the balcony to wave to the crowd and watch a flyover of military aircraft.

The finale of the flyover was an appearance by the Royal Air Force aerobatic display team, known as the Red Arrows, which for the first time used a blend of sustainable aviation fuel to power their aircraft and generate their signature red, white and blue smoke trails.

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — An Air India plane bound for London crashed in a residential area of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board, the airline said. One passenger who was thrown from the plane survived.

An unknown number of people on the ground were killed in the crash, including medical students in a college hostel when the plane hit the building and burst into flames, said Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwestern city.

“Most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition,” she said.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that he met the sole survivor at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.

“He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. “But he seems to be out of danger.”

Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, throwing him out before a loud explosion.

Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multistory buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground and parts of the fuselage were scattered around the site. Indian army teams were assisting civil authorities to clear debris and help treat the injured.

A video on social media showed the jet slowly descending as if it were landing. As soon as it disappeared from view behind rows of houses, a giant fireball filled the sky. The AP was able to verify the video by matching up the flight path of the plane from the runway with the crash site and the nearby residential area.

At the crash site, the tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabilizer fins still attached was lodged near the top of one of the buildings.

In a social media post, Modi called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words” and said “my thoughts are with everyone affected.”

Sambit Patra, a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said Gujarat’s former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, was among the dead.

Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, said at least five students from the medical college were killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them were in critical condition and many people are “feared buried in the debris.”

Air India confirmed in a statement posted on X that 229 passengers and 12 crew members were killed in the crash. The only survivor was a British national of Indian origin. The flight bound for London Gatwick Airport had 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian aboard.

“Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of all those affected, their families and loved ones,” the airline said.

This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing said it was “working to gather more information.”

India’s aviation regulatory body said the aircraft gave a mayday call, signaling an emergency, but then did not respond to the calls made by the airport traffic control.

Aviation consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, told the AP from Los Angeles that while the first images of the crash were poor, it appeared the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which is one of the things that investigators would look at.

“The 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring — the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands — so once we get that recorder, they’ll be able to know pretty quickly what happened,” he said.

The wide-body, twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was in constant contact with Indian authorities and encouraged loved ones of passengers on the Air India flight to contact the foreign office.

“Our hearts and our thoughts are absolutely with the friends and families of all those affected who are going to be absolutely devastated by this awful news,” Starmer said.

British Cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide “all the support that it can” to those affected by the crash.

Britain has very close ties with India. There were nearly 1.9 million people in the country of Indian descent, according to the 2021 U.K. census.

Condolences also poured in from King Charles III, who said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were “desperately shocked” by the crash.

“Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations,” he said in a statement.

The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020, when an Air India Express Boeing-737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people.

The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes.

Boeing has been in recovery mode for more than six years after Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members.

Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the U.S.

Roy reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain and Sheikh Saaliq in Srinagar, India; Pan Pylas, Kelvin Chan and Brian Melley in London; and Annika Wolters, David Rising, Adam Schreck and Lorian Belanger in Bangkok contributed to this report.