AI 171 crash: Families of four victims sue Boeing, Honeywell in US court; allege negligence, faulty fuel control switches

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court, alleges faulty fuel control switches led to the crash that killed all but one of the 242 people on board the aircraft and 19 more on the ground. The aircraft, operating flight AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed moments after taking off from the Ahemdabad airport on June 12.

The doomed plane’s fuel control switches became a focus area in the air crash investigation as the preliminary probe found that both the switches transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ moments after liftoff. The switches, manufactured by Honeywell and installed by Boeing, are designed with a locking mechanism to prevent unintended cutoff of fuel supply to the engines mid-flight.

The lawsuit says that these switches are installed in a “high traffic” location immediately behind and adjacent to the thrust levers that pilots continuously manipulate during takeoff. It alleges that both Honeywell and Boeing knew the locking mechanism could easily be turned off inadvertently or could be missing altogether.

The lawsuit makes a reference to the Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in December 2018. The SAIB was regarding the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) preliminary report into the tragic crash had mentioned this specific SAIB, which was issued after a few 737 operators said that some fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged. Various Boeing aircraft, including the 787s, have fuel control switches similar to those on the 737s. When the SAIB was issued, the FAA had said that the concern was not an unsafe condition, but had advised operators of various Boeing models to inspect the switches. As the SAIB was only advisory and not mandatory, Air India had not carried out the inspection on the ill-fated aircraft. Moreover, the throttle control module—which houses the fuel control switches among others—was last changed in 2023 on the plane, and no defect related to the switches was reported since.

Even after the preliminary probe report was released, the FAA and Boeing maintained that the fuel control switches on Boeing aircraft are safe. Experts say accidental movement of the switches—used to allow and cut fuel supply to the aircraft’s engines—is not quite possible. The spring-loaded switches have brackets on either side to protect them and the locking mechanism requires the pilots to lift the switch up before moving it between either of its two positions—RUN and CUTOFF.

However, the lawyers representing the families claim otherwise. The Lanier Law Firm said in a release that there is no evidence that Boeing and Honeywell had alerted Air India or other customers that the switches must be inspected and repaired for passenger safety and did not ship replacement switches to those airlines for installation.

“It is shocking that Honeywell and Boeing both knew of this danger and did absolutely nothing to prevent the inevitable catastrophe that occurred on June 12,” said Benjamin Major, co-counsel for the families.

“This defect is comparable to an auto manufacturer putting an unprotected emergency brake control next to a radio volume knob in your car. And unlike a car, restarting jet engines takes minutes of time, not seconds. Once these engines shut down, that plane basically became a 250,000-pound lawn dart,” Major said.

Ever since the preliminary report was released, there has been considerable speculation on whether the switches were flicked by one of the pilots—inadvertently or otherwise—or whether the transition signal to the system was due to any technical, mechanical, or software issue. To be sure, the report does not state that either of the pilots physically moved the switches, just that they transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF. The report also did not issue any recommendation to other operators of the Boeing 787-8 aircraft and its GE engines, suggesting that the preliminary probe did not find a reason to believe that there was any issue with the plane or its engines.