Families of Air India crash victims sue Boeing in US court

FAMILIES of four passengers who died in the Air India crash in June have filed a lawsuit in a US court against Boeing and Honeywell International, alleging that a faulty fuel cut-off switch caused the disaster.

The case, filed in Delaware Superior Court by The Lanier Law Firm, seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the wrongful deaths of four passengers on flight AI171.

On June 12, the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people, including 241 passengers. It was one of the worst air disasters in India in more than three decades.

According to the lawsuit, flight data shows that a pilot accidentally cut off fuel to the aircraft’s engines just seconds after take-off, leading to a complete loss of thrust. The fuel cut-off switch, manufactured by Honeywell and installed by Boeing, is supposed to have a locking mechanism to prevent accidental shut-off.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is probing the crash, said in its preliminary report that the fuel switches were cut off within one second of each other, causing confusion in the cockpit before the plane plunged into a building. Cockpit voice recordings captured one pilot asking the other why he had cut the switch, to which the second pilot denied doing so.

The lawsuit alleges that the switches are located just behind the thrust levers, an area of “high traffic” during take-off. Documents cited in the case suggest that both Boeing and Honeywell knew the locking mechanism could be easily disengaged or even absent.

A 2018 Federal Aviation Administration report reportedly confirmed the issue, but the companies did not alert airlines or provide replacement switches, according to the law firm.

“This defect is like putting an emergency brake next to a radio knob in a car. But unlike a car, restarting jet engines takes minutes, not seconds,” said Benjamin Major of The Lanier Law Firm. “Once the engines shut down, the aircraft essentially became a 250,000-pound lawn dart.”

Meanwhile, the family of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, one of the pilots who died in the crash, has asked for a formal government investigation.

His 91-year-old father, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, wrote to the civil aviation secretary and the AAIB, saying that leaks from the inquiry had led to damaging speculation about his son’s mental state. He said such innuendos had caused him deep distress and tarnished his son’s reputation.

The AAIB is continuing its inquiry into the cause of the crash, which remains one of the deadliest aviation tragedies in India since the 1990s.

(PTI)