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It is too soon to draw conclusions about what caused the crash of Air India’s Boeing (NYSE:BA) 787 jet, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Friday, calling recent media reports “premature and speculative.”
Investigators, led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau with assistance from the NTSB, have been compiling evidence to determine the reasons for the Air India Flight 171 crash on June 12, killing 260 people.
It can take a year or longer for authorities to release a final report laying out the probable cause of an accident and recommendations for avoiding future tragedies.
A preliminary report released by the AAIB found two fuel control switches on the 787 Dreamliner were moved to a cutoff position after the aircraft lifted off, starving the engines of fuel, and it was too late to save the flight by the time the move was reversed 10 seconds later.
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the doomed flight supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane’s engine.
Officials are trying to determine whether it could have been the result of human action – accidental or deliberate – or a failure of the plane’s systems.
Investigators have not identified any mechanical or design issues with the Boeing (NYSE:BA) plane or the engines that were manufactured by GE Aerospace (GE).