New Delhi: 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.
The FIP also said the findings should be considered in the final report.
"Survivor reports referring to a loud bang and dimming of cabin lighting, ACARS maintenance messages transmitted between 0753 and 0808 UTC, and the damage visible in the aft EAFR image reproduced in the preliminary report may be examined collectively...," the letter said.
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According to the FIP, the same should be correlated with recorded aircraft data to establish a coherent sequence of events and determine whether any electrical system anomalies or software abnormalities contributed to the accident.
ACARS refers to Aircraft Communications, Addressing and Reporting System, and EAFR is Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder.
Air India's Boeing 787-8 or Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB enroute to London Gatwick crashed soon after takeoff from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, killing 241 people onboard and 19 on the ground.
One passenger survived while all the 12 crew members died in the accident that happened during the initial climb. The passengers who died in the crash were citizens from India, UK, Portugal and Canada.
AAIB released its preliminary report into the crash on July 12, 2025.
