US Regulator Affirms Boeing Fuel Switches Are Safe After Air India Crash

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it does not consider Boeing aircraft fuel control switches to be unsafe, following their reported involvement in the June crash of an Air India flight that resulted in 260 deaths. The preliminary investigation, released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), found that fuel to the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's engines was cut off shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, with switches controlling fuel flow moved from "run" to "cut-off" position.

The AAIB report referenced a 2018 FAA advisory that recommended, but did not require, operators to inspect the locking feature of the fuel cut-off switches to prevent accidental movement. According to the AAIB, Air India had not performed this inspection. In an internal note, the FAA stated that while the fuel control switch design and locking feature are similar across several Boeing models, it "does not consider this issue to be an unsafe condition that would warrant an Airworthiness Directive on any Boeing airplane models, including the Model 787."

Cockpit voice recordings reviewed by investigators indicated that one pilot asked the other during the flight why the fuel had been cut off, to which the second pilot replied that he had not done so. The AAIB said the switches were moved to cut-off almost simultaneously after take-off, but the report did not determine how this occurred. Air India's chief executive cautioned against drawing premature conclusions from the preliminary findings.