Plane Crash - this looks really bad

It's a kind of relief that there is no fault with the plane, a dreamliner is something many of us would have travelled on, a lot of plane crashes are in poor countries with old planes. But it is frightening, it's something l mutter to myself everytime l step on a plane and see the pilot "my life is in your hands"... Suppose you go with the law of averages.

 

He had the cockpit to himself though, with no other pilot there to counter his actions

 

Yes, they changed the rules after that crash to ensure two pilots were in at all times.

 

If you effectively turn the engines off at 500 feet then no one’s saving anything. The report is saying the engine fuel switch was in the “off” position and it’s pretty much impossible to accidentally switch both off- you have to pull the switch and turn it. So unless I’m missing something it’s a pretty strong indicator. They have all the data now, and if the engines had failed by themselves or due to something like a bird strike they would know, and would have mentioned it in the preliminary report.
The report doesn’t name pilot error so they see keeping an open mind, because still an electrical fault I guess or some other mechanical malfunction could effect the switch of course.

 

This thread discusses the known fault in a bit more detail.

 

This was a 787, the switches - both of them are under the thrust levers on the central console, so you have to reach across to get to them, even if you accidentally brushed on one and it didn’t have the safety mechanism working, would it happen twice in 1 second?
Remember in the bazillion flying hours of this plane no one has ver accidentally offed both switches and they’ve never failed by themselves.

 

Boeing can't afford this accident to be a plane related fault. After all the allegations of corner cutting, silencing whistleblowers, groundings and planes falling out of the sky due to software issues, the blame for the crash has to go down to human error by one or the other pilots who can't defend themselves cos they're dead. I'm starting to get very wary of Boeing planes.

 

Latest news I've just seen mentioned an upgrade on teh fuel switches in 2018 for that plane that Air India opted out of

 

Human error is the easiest place to lay the blame
None of the air companies ever want to accept the blame
Compensation doubles

 

It’s now 40 times safer flying than in the 1960s. One of the main reasons for this is that after every crash there is an inquiry that does its best to find the reason and fix it so it doesn’t happen again.
You can equally argue that airlines don’t want to accept the blame either and nor do pilots and ground crews and airtraffic control and engine manufacturers and any of the thousands of people and companies that touch an airplane. Fortunately there is no grand cover up no Epstein file, no illuminati, FBI Mossad council hiding the truth about aircraft safety.
in this case the simplest explanation is probably going to be the right one. As laid out by the interim report:
The fuel was shut off to both engines after take off, the captain asked the first officer who was flying the plan why he did that? FO denied it, the engine fuel switch was switched back on, but at 500 feet there was no way to recover. So we are left with question, was it a mistake by the FO or did he do it on purpose? It’s not a cover up, it’s not the masons or the Vatican, it’s either someone doing the equivalent of opening the boot of a car when you’re trying to change gear by accident or on purpose.

 

Because he'd locked the other pilot out.

 

I was in a plane crash when I was a teenager - something exploded in the hold, the plane lost pressure, oxygen masks dropped, the pilot put the plane into a steep dive, and made an emergency landing in the first suitable field in Portugal. We got to use the slides after taking our shoes off, got bussed off to a hotel, and spent several extra days on holiday in Lisbon. About half the passengers refused to get on the replacement sent several days later to complete the journey, and instead took a long ferry trip back to the UK.

The way I figure it I’m statistically very unlikely to have a similar experience again. Planes are amongst the safest forms of travel. I even learnt to fly a few years later.