this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
259 points (100.0% liked)

World News

48473 readers
1710 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] obinice@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

So, so many poorly informed people in here jumping to conclusions, many of which were already ruled out in the preliminary report.

I don't know any more than what's in that document myself.

Perhaps some of the armchair aircraft safety investigators in here might want to at least skim the details before coming up with wild theories? Or at least provide reasoning and evidence to support them.

May those who lost their lives, and their loved ones, find peace and closure as best they can once we have all the details. Until then, it would be crass to speculate, especially as non-experts not privvy to the details of the investigation.

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If I remember correctly, those switches need to be physically lifted up and rotated for the engines to switch from RUN to CUTOFF. there's also physical guards there to prevent pilots from knocking them. here's a diagram of the layout (source).

I've read theories that the pilot who manipulated the fuel switches could've mistook them for the stabiliser cutout switch but the switches are very different. the timing is also sus because it would've been at just the right time for things to have not been recoverable. 10 seconds earlier and the takeoff could've been aborted, 10 seconds later and the plane could've had enough altitude and speed to land in a safer area. also the way the pilot reacted to the other pilot suggests he saw the other pilot shut off the fuel to both engines one after the other and was in a state of shock

[–] SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They lift up over a gate and you move them down to shut off, rather than turning. There’s no guard over them though. They’re not really close to any other switches you’d be manipulating at any time, especially right after takeoff, and they are a different shape than any other switch (Boeing likes to shape their switches differently so that if you grab the wrong one you’ll feel it). I cannot imagine how one could accidentally move one, let alone both switches do cutoff. But sometimes my brain does inexplicably dumb shit, so I dunno.

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

by guards I meant the guard brackets which help prevent accidental movement (source) but I agree I just can't see this being done accidentally. the look and feel of the switches are just so different it'd be almost like mistaking a red light for a green one with normal colour vision or something. it's still early days so i'm sure more will come out about the history of the pilots with time. if this does turn out to be intentional it's pretty scary because it's something that's unrecoverable at that phase of flight if it happens and that needs to not happen again

[–] SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Oh, ya, ok. Those guards are really more to stop you whacking the side of the switches and breaking the plastic lens and lightbulbs in the top of the switch, but because the switches move up and down and not side to side, those brackets really have no impact on the actual moving of the switches, accidental or otherwise.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

one would think such a fail state should be only accessible after the user has bypassed and confirmed the action.

let's be honest, do we trust boeing at this point?

is it clear that FADEC cannot cut-off via software?

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 37 points 1 week ago (8 children)

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/11/india/air-india-crash-report-intl-latam

This article has a photo of the switches in question, and goes into more detail about how they work.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Given the mechanical saftey built into those switches, Unfortunately I guess that leaves us with two reasonable possibilities:

A) One of the pilots was somehow mistaken on the function of those switches and toggled them when they should not have. Then they genuinely thought they hadn't when asked why they had cutoff fuel.

Or

B) One of the pilots chose to cut off fuel supply to both engines, intentionally bringing down the plane. They then lied to the other pilot when asked why they'd cutoff fuel.

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

both pilots were experienced and had also passed breathalyser tests before the flight too (source)

[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Breathalysers don't detect tired or suicidal pilots.

The interim report stated copilot was pilot flying meaning they only focus on flying and he had also just flown already today. Captain however was his first flight in his shift and was also pilot monitoring.

[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

the planes also arent supposed to automatically dip downwards but here we are

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You can't exactly expect a plane to keep flying when you've commanded the engines to stop running/taken away their fuel at such a critical time...

[–] dalekcaan@feddit.nl 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I think they're referring to the software issues that bought down multiple 737 MAXs, though it shouldn't be relevant here because 787s don't have the modified software that caused the crashes.

[–] nuko147@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

He is blaming Boeing, or more correctly he doesn't trust Boeing to be 100% innocent.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

Sounds like the pilots killed the fuel, and did not mean to do so. Having watched the video, and being totally ignorant of this sort of thing, that makes sense of what I saw.

I'm not trusting any report until I have had heard from Admiral Cloudberg. If you're not familiar, plane crash investigation is what he does. He's completely unbiased and seems to be the expert, at least for us layman.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 20 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I watched a very comprehensive and professional video by Captain Steeeve on this subject earlier today. He didn't outright literally say that one of the pilots deliberately downed the plane, but it was very clear that he thought that was the only explanation that really made sense here. Why do you say it sounds like they "did not mean to do so"? The switches are designed to not be movable without considerable deliberation and intent, you can't just bump these with your knee and switch them off. And both pilots were plenty experienced enough to know that you don't turn those switches off at that point in the flight.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Petter and Ben from Mentour Pilot all but said they came to the same conclusion

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›