Air India Crash: Aviation Expert Suggests Pilot May Have Deliberately Caused Tragedy

An aviation expert has claimed that the 2025 crash of Air India Flight 171 may have been a deliberate act by the pilot-in-command. Australian aviation veteran Captain Byron Bailey told Sky News Australia that evidence from the aircraft’s black box strongly suggests the captain intentionally shut off fuel to the engines shortly after take-off.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed into a residential building in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2015, just moments after departing for London’s Gatwick Airport. Only one passenger, British-Indian national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived. Nineteen people on the ground also lost their lives in the disaster.

A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau revealed the plane’s fuel control switches were turned off three seconds after take-off, cutting fuel supply and causing the aircraft to lose thrust. Although the switches were turned back on and one engine regained power, it was too late to prevent the crash.

According to black box data cited by *The Wall Street Journal*, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was responsible for moving the fuel control switches to the cut-off position. The cockpit voice recording reportedly captured a back-and-forth between the captain and First Officer Clive Kunder, who was flying the aircraft and questioned the move.

Captain Bailey believes the act could not have been accidental. “To us aviation people, we believe straight away that the only way this could have happened is if the captain turned off the fuel control switches,” he said. Bailey pointed out that the switches are mechanical and require a deliberate physical effort to move, making accidental activation highly unlikely.

He added that during take-off, the co-pilot would have had both hands on the control wheel and would not have been able to reach the switches, suggesting only the captain could have performed the action. “So it had to be done by one of the pilots. But since the co-pilot was the one flying, then of course, the captain was the one under suspicion,” Bailey said, calling the crash a case of “suicide by the captain.”

The official report has not determined how the switches were moved, nor has it confirmed intentional sabotage. However, the focus has shifted to Captain Sabharwal’s mental health. Reports suggest he had taken medical leave in recent years due to depression and other psychological issues.

Bailey has called for new safety measures, including cockpit video recording devices with 30-minute closed-loop systems, to capture the final moments of flights for future investigations.

Air India released a statement expressing its ongoing grief over the tragedy and pledged full cooperation with the continuing investigation. “Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses,” the airline said.