Families of four AI crash victims sue Boeing in US

Families of four passengers, who died in the Air India plane crash in June, have filed a negligence lawsuit in a US court against Boeing and aircraft parts manufacturer Honeywell International alleging that a faulty fuel cutoff switch led to the crash, according to a statement.

The lawsuit has sought compensatory and punitive damages for the wrongful deaths of four passengers on Flight 171, a US-based law firm said in a statement.

In one of the worst aviation disasters in India's history, 260 persons, including 241 passengers, died after the Tata Group-owned Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating Flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court by the Lanier Law Firm, flight data indicated that an Air India pilot accidentally shut off fuel to Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's engines, causing a complete loss of thrust necessary to complete the takeoff.

The fuel cutoff switch, manufactured by Honeywell and installed by Boeing, is designed with a locking mechanism to prevent unintended cutoff of fuel supply to the engines mid-flight.

India's nodal aircraft investigation agency, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is probing one of the country's deadliest air disasters in more than three decades, had in its preliminary report said fuel switches to the engines were cutoff within a gap of one second immediately after takeoff and caused confusion in the cockpit before the plane crashed into a building.

"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off (the switch). The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it had said.

But the lawsuit says these switches are installed in a "high traffic" location immediately behind and adjacent to the thrust levers that pilots continuously manipulate during takeoff.

"In addition, documents show that both Honeywell and Boeing knew the locking mechanism could easily be turned off inadvertently or could be missing altogether," it said.