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On this week’s episode of AvTalk, Indian investigators narrow the focus of their investigation on the crashed 787’s fuel cut off switches. Lufthansa has quite the week with a damaged A340 in need of an unpressurized transatlantic ferry flight, a diverted 747 in South America, and a loose cat locked in a lavatory. A young pilot flies to Antarctica without authorization, raising the ire of the Chilean government. A man is ingested by a Volotea A319 engine in Milan and the NTSB releases its preliminary report on the close call between a Delta A319 and a flight of T-38s in Washington DC.
Helpful links for this week’s episode
- The Air Current’s report on the AI171 investigation
- Lufthansa A340 unpressurized transatlantic ferry flight
- Unauthorized flight to Antarctica
- Volotea flight in Milan
- NTSB Delta—T-38s preliminary report
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12 Responses
Lifi
SEA has daylight in CPB-area 🙂 Indeed a rare one.
Prefer to read than have podcast.. can you add transcript from podcast… So we can choose. Thank you
Hi Brenden, the transcript is available after publication, using later the same day, but sometimes it takes longer to process. It is available now at the bottom of the page. Thank you!
I totally agree!
When can I listen to the pilots talking to the air traffic control tower at Cape Town international airport
Yes, the flight tax in Sweden was revoked. However Swedavia raised the passenger fees with the exact same amount as the tax was. So in the end it’s +- 0 on the flight ticket.
Gents, speaking to a 767 pilot yesterday, its procedure when a crash is imminent to cut the fuel to the engines to reduce the risk of fire at impact. That would explain the fuel switches being moved to the off position on the AI flight. No one should be speculating at this point, but since you referenced the Airbus issues, worth mentioning.
Hi Mark, thanks for your comment. We now know from the preliminary report that the switches were moved to CUTOFF and then back to RUN.
Regarding the AI171 crash, I find it highly unlikely that it would be intentional by either of the pilots. First of all, with the transcript, why would he lie? When one pilot asks why he switched them to off and he relied “I didn’t”. Why would someone who is so prepared to die, lie? I.e. German wings crash he was just quiet instead of replying, which I find a lot more likely in the event. Why lie? And why let the other pilot even switch them back on? If it was intentional, wouldn’t you make sure that what you started would be completed? Seems very weird to me..
And something that caught my eye was the bulletin from FAA in 2018. That the locking mechanism could be faulty. We know that AI did not perform the recommended (but not mandatory) inspections. And that AI171 did in fact have those potentially faulty fuel switches installed. And if we also remember that when this bulletin was issued in 2018, was the same time as Boeing and FAA were doing their shenanigans regarding the 737 Max. Is it not also likely that they could’ve downplayed this issue because it would be costly and bad rep to enforce a change on all fuel switches? And that the chance of something happening super low. I mean just look at their attitude regarding MCAS and how that was not significant.
And regarding the fuel switches, it took one second in between to shut them off. Which according to my knowledge (just fiddled in a 737 authentic sim) seems pretty fast. But it took a whole 4 seconds to switch them back to “On”. To me that indicates that it’s not being done on purpose.
And for all we know so far, the recording shows fuel switches being off. But it could be software? Wasn’t there an issue on another 787 before with fuel switches turning off automatically, albeit on ground but still? With the recording, all we know is that the fuel switches sent signal of being off. But we don’t know if the knobs actually were moved to off. Could’ve been a software glitch for all we know.
I find it sad to see so many people instantly going to the intentional conspiracy and blaming the pilots for something that is not proven to be true. Imagine the families… and isn’t it a saying that if the incident is during take off its most likely plane error and if it’s during landing most likely pilot error? That’s what I’ve learned at least.
No flaps ? And fuel contamination how would that happen ? The fires in cedar city and grand canal are crazy Ive been seeing the tankers flying from hill afb to cedar city lately and I’ve been seeing Md-87s c130s and the rj-85s I’ts been crazy but the cat …😅🤣😂 how does that even happen!?
Also this is only my second time listening to the podcast and it’s been amazing to have aviation news with amazing guys like you 😌 and learning about these events and relating it to the aviation in my area!