Air India plane suffered 'no mechanical fault' before crash, chief executive says in memo

A preliminary report into last month's fatal Air India crash found there was no mechanical or maintenance faults on board the plane, the airline's chief executive has said in a memo to staff.

Chief executive Campbell Wilson said in the note, seen by the news agency Reuters, that the report had also found that all required maintenance on the aircraft had been carried out. He said the investigation into the crash, which saw all but one of the 242 passengers on board and 19 others on the ground killed when the Boeing aircraft plummeted shortly after take-off on 12 June, was far from over.

The plane was on its way to London when it crashed during take-off from India's Ahmedabad Airport. Mr Wilson said it was unwise to jump to any premature conclusions, after the preliminary report found fuel to the engines of the plane appeared to have cut off shortly after take-off.

According to the report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), switches in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's cockpit that controlled fuel moved to a "CUTOFF" position. There was then confusion in the cockpit.

In the voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he "cut off". The other pilot responds that he did not do so.

Mr Wilson's memo said: "The release of the preliminary report marked the point at which we, along with the world, began receiving additional details about what took place. "Unsurprisingly, it provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions." Read more:Everything you need to know about Air India Flight 171 It added: "The preliminary report identified no cause nor made any recommendations, so I urge everyone to avoid drawing premature conclusions as the investigation is far from over." ALPA India, which represents Indian pilots at the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, rejected the presumption of pilot error in the Ahmedabad crash and called for a "fair, fact-based inquiry".

"The pilots' body must now be made part of the probe, at least as observers," ALPA India president Sam Thomas told Reuters on Sunday. Both pilots were experienced, with around 19,000 flying hours between them, including more than 9,000 on the 787.

The preliminary report, released on Saturday, suggested no immediate action for Boeing or GE, whose engines were fitted to the aircraft. It comes as the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing have 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.

On Monday, India ordered its airlines to examine fuel switches on several Boeing models, while South Korea said it would order a similar measure..