22:24
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Sunday asked probe agency AAIB to carry out Boeing 787 simulator tests to verify the relation between RAT deployment and fuel control switch movement with respect to the AI171 plane crash last year.
The pilots' grouping's demand comes days after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its interim statement on June 12 saying that significant progress has been made in the probe into the Air India plane crash that killed 260 people on June 12, 2025.
Citing a letter by a law firm representing passengers and families affected by the crash, FIP said RAT deployment might be unrelated to the fuel system changes before the aircraft crashed.
Ram Air Turbine (RAT) deploys automatically in the eventuality of a dual engine failure or total electric or hydraulic failure. It uses wind speed to generate emergency power for the aircraft.
In a letter to the AAIB on Sunday, the grouping has sought a comprehensive series of Boeing 787 simulator tests, with an FIP-nominated observer, to independently verify the acceleration recorded in the AAIB preliminary report as well as the relationship between RAT deployment, RAT hydraulic power generation and fuel control switch movement. -- PTI
