Air India 171 rash

I really doubt suicide. If you were trying to commit suicide you wouldn't cut the fuel three seconds after takeoff. At that point it is very likely it could be landed. They were only going 180 knots and at about 400 feet off the ground.

Most recent summary seems to be no one can believe it was plane malfunction. Either the pilot moved it... or something else.

I think sabotage. I assume anyone with sufficient mechanic knowledge could do it. Why? I don't know. Maybe we have a killer fascinated with bringing down planes. And although I've never heard of that, we have all kinds of people who like to destroy or harm in certain ways and they often gravitate towards a profession that helps them do that. So, pilot seems rather short-lived, I'd be looking at mechanics or anyone who has regular free access to the plane.

How could a mechanic manage to physically "flip" the switches shortly after take off if the mechanic is not physically present?

Quote: missedhervee

How could a mechanic manage to physical "flip" the switches shortly after take off if the mechanic is not physically present?

It would likely be automated. People are endlessly ingenious of coming up with sometimes more simple hacks than you might expect. 911 itself wasn't technically complicated and look what they did. Train to be pilots with easily available training, carry box knifes, coordinate and make a plan.

Arsonists' have burned down buildings with time delay devices made with a lit cigarette stuck in a bundle of matches.

Timothy McVeigh bought fertilizer and rented a u-haul.

Boston bombers used pressure cookers, fireworks, and cellphones.

Vegas shooter killed 57 people by himself with multiple semi-automatics with bump stocks from a elevated hotel window.

Occam's razor suggests, it was just a pilot moving the lever. But it's such a stramge act so far with no hints from authority about that as yet. Maybe they
re just not ready to reveal it yet.

Quote: rxwine

Occam's razor suggests, it was just a pilot moving the lever. But it's such a stramge act so far with no hints from authority about that as yet. Maybe they
re just not ready to reveal it yet.

I doubt they are hiding anything. If I had to speculate now one of the pilots flipped the switches without even realizing what they did. In other words, in my mind it was probably accidental or they were not consciously aware of what they did.

In the CVR we can hear a pilot ask they other pilot why he moved the switches and the other pilot responds that he did not do it.

Quote: DRich

If I had to speculate now one of the pilots flipped the switches without even realizing what they did

I think you would agree that the problem with this theory revolves around previous experience. If this was easy to do because it was similar to a normal process, or you could do it by brushing it with your elbow, whatever, surely it would have happened before this.

I'm kind of surprised big passenger liners don't have the equivalent of an inside dash cam. It doesn't require anything but a regular car dashcam sent to the same or similar Blackbox running in a constant loop. For less than 1k, we'd have seen exactly what was going on with the pilots. And if someone disconnected or blocked it we would see that.

(If you want to see some disturbing stuff watch a compilation of inside/outside dashcam car crash videos on youtube.) I regretted it after I did it though.

Quote: rxwine

I'm no engineer but to my untrained eye those switches seem to be poorly, indeed dangerously located beneath the throttle controls.

I wonder: could the pilot have accidentally flipped both of them when he took his hands off the throttle controls, i.e. perhaps his hands dropped and swiped against them?

Then again, must they be toggled horizontally or vertically to shut off the engines?