An Air India crash probe is reportedly leaning towards deliberate action by the pilot before the plane plunged from the sky into a fireball, killing 260 people.
The bomb attack claim was revealed by sources close to the case, fueling rumors that have been swirling for months since the June 12 disaster in Ahmedabad.
Mechanical failure has been ruled out by experts and there is still no evidence to suggest sabotage, This is reported by the Bloomberg agency.
This leaves pilot action as the strongest line of investigation.
The sources asked to remain anonymous because the potentially explosive findings have not yet been made public.
It comes after an initial report found that Sumeet Sabharwal — A 56-year-old veteran at the controls the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner — “interruption” the aircraft’s fuel control switches just moments after takeoff.
All but one of the 242 people on board were killed in the crash when the plane came down on a medical students’ hostel near Ahmedabad.
The narrative later shifted after an Indian court came to the pilots’ defense, claiming that “nobody can blame him for anything”.
The final report on the causes of the crash is due to be published in June – a year after the tragedy.
But investigators are expected to plan to release before the deadline.
One of the final stages of the investigation was completed in December with a trip to the US to analyze the cockpit and flight data.
The purpose of the trip, conducted by a team from the Air Accident Investigation Board of India, was to determine whether the fuel switches had been deliberately moved to the off position.
The recordings were examined using special technology to identify the specific noise that the switches make. But loud noise in the cockpit during takeoff complicated the analysis, the sources said.
The final report is expected to draw a line behind the speculation surrounding the crash.
The allegations against the pilot, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, were made by US officials who said a black box recording revealed a tense exchange in the cockpit moments before the crash.
Sources familiar with the US investigation said it was Sumeet who reached for the fuel control switches after the Dreamliner skidded off the runway – sealing the plane’s dire fate.
Pushkaraj Sabharwal, Sumeet’s 91-year-old father, told the inquest that his son was a highly qualified pilot who “regularly” passed flying tests and accused US officials of being “biased” in his claims.
He called for an “independent” investigation to look into other possible causes of the crash.
Shocking CCTV footage showed the Boeing 787 taking off before it appeared to lose power.
Video of the doomed flight shows the plane hurtling down the runway before take off at around 1:38pm local time from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
The footage shows the plane taking off into the sky – before appearing to stop climbing and then plummet back to earth.
The plane was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport and was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members – including 53 Britons.
A Briton miraculously survived the crash after jumping from the burning jet and was filmed walking away from the wreckage.
Capt. Sabharwal had over 15,000 flight hours – more than 8,000 on the Dreamliner – and had long been regarded as stable and reliable.
It was just reported months after retirement, he was mourning the death of his mother and caring for his elderly father.
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