Air India Preliminary Report - Yikes!

[Dave says]

4. Very difficult to be a pilot error

The fuel flow switches are analogue. In fact you have to lift the knob to clear metal and push it down until it clicks in place. Twice.

There’s a senior pilot with a podcast that covered it. With pictures. I suppose a naive pilot could have perceived they were off, pulled on the knobs and pushed them down to the off position. But “on” isn’t usually positioned below the first button (perceived to be the “off” position).

The podcast I saw wasn’t privy to the dialogue between the pilots, but likely there is a digital light - probably red and flashing - that comes on once there is no pressure on the tires (meaning they were airborne). That probably motivated one of the pilots to ask that question.

(The tire pressure thing was covered in the podcast. I’ll look for it and post a link.)

On edit: could a naive pilot, during the checklist run, see the fuel switches on then, thinking neither he nor his fellow pilot have touched them yet, then pushed them to the opposite position, the “off” position. The RAT was engaged early, too, when the engines flamed out. That makes a racket! One pilot then nervously glanced down and asked the other if he shut fuel flow off. But it was too late. ….so what do I know (not much). The cockpit voice recorder will help analyze what went wrong. Sad for everyone involved.