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On every aircraft that I have been on, there is only one set of fuel shutoff switches. They are guarded switches and require a deliberate act to actuate.
India (Superthread)
- Thread starter tomahawk6
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I suppose. Training standards may be “iffy” in that part of the world. The dude who actuated the fuel shutoffs, may actually have thought he was doing something else. We may never know for certain.
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Photo of the cutoffs (directly below the throttles) i in this article:
www.flightglobal.com
Circumstances of fuel-switch movement become central to Air India 787 crash inquiry
While the Air India Boeing 787-8 crash inquiry has found that fuel control cut-off switches were activated almost as soon as the aircraft lifted off, the circumstances of the switches' movement remain unexplained. Preliminary findings from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau simply...
www.flightglobal.com
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Seeing as the switches have a 'stop-lock' safety (i.e. lift and re-position), it makes sense that it would have to have been a deliberate act since each switch must be manually held but probably a thumb and one finger to move. It is being reported that each switch went into cut-off about one second apart so it would seem a very quick and deliberate act.
The only unanswered question is whether the flight control computer has the ability to activate these switch. As we saw with the 737 Max series of incidents, an unintended response to inputs.
The only unanswered question is whether the flight control computer has the ability to activate these switch. As we saw with the 737 Max series of incidents, an unintended response to inputs.
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It is guess work, but it is probably a mechanical system for a very good reason.
If, hypothetically, it was a computer error, how likely is it that they would have actuated at just about the same speed it takes a human to manually flip two swtiches?
Oldgateboatdriver
Army.ca Fixture
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I look in my crystal ball and I see some deep, deep investigation into the lives of those two Air India pilots in the near future.
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Like SKT noted, just one set. In the center console between the two pilots, and equally accessible.
I don’t think so. I and a few folks here know of real-life examples, in particular one I know of where during an engine failure checklist response, the non-flying pilot (PM - pilot monitoring) mistakenly cut-off fuel to the good engine…at low level…like nap-of-the-earth low…15-20’ above the ground. Fortunately the pilot flying (PF) had a metric schiße-ton of experience and autorotated the helicopter to a smooth and successful autorotation. Apparently the troops on board thought it was the planned tactical disembarkation and they all split the scene after the helo came to a stop. Fixed-wing aircraft don’t have as many options as these guys did, sadly.
No. This is a hard-wired circuit from the cockpit to each engine’s fuel control unit. It’s know as a discrete (analogue, energized or not) line…as opposed to being converted from an analogue signal into a digital signal and interleaved into a control bus with a bunch of other signals. I don’t know about Airbus, but having worked with their control systems engineers I’m certain that Boeing runs discrete control lines to all its aircraft’s engine controls, fixed-wing platforms or CH-47/AH-64/AH/MH-6.
