Ahmedabad plane crash: Lawsuit filed against Boeing, Honeywell in Delaware court

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Families of four victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash have filed a lawsuit in the United States against planemaker Boeing and aircraft component maker Honeywell. The case, filed in a Delaware court, alleges that faulty fuel control switches, manufactured by Honeywell and installed by Boeing, led to the crash of the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8.

The aircraft, bound for London from Ahmedabad, went down shortly after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board. According to the lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court by The Lanier Law Firm, flight data indicates that an Air India pilot accidentally shut off fuel to the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's engines, causing a complete loss of thrust necessary to complete the takeoff.

The fuel cutoff switch, manufactured by Honeywell, 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 conducting a probe into the disaster, had in its preliminary report said fuel switches to the engines of the aircraft were cut off within a gap of 1 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.

That assertion is supported by a 2018 Federal Aviation Administration report confirming that Boeing and Honeywell were aware that switches were being delivered on the aircraft with the locking mechanism disengaged, allowing for "unintended" fuel cutoff mid-flight, the law firm said. "However, there is no evidence that the companies alerted Air India or other customers that the switches must be inspected and repaired for passenger safety and did not ship replacement switches to those airlines for installation," it said.

This marks the first time litigation connected to the Ahmedabad crash has been filed in the U.S.

According to reports, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families of Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal, Naavya Chirag Paghadal, Kuberbhai Patel, and Babiben Patel, seeking compensation for their loss. Preliminary investigations indicated that the simultaneous failure of both engines led to the fatal accident.