Families of four Ahmedabad plane crash victims sue Boeing, Honeywell in the US

Months after the Ahmedabad-London Air India flight 171 crash that killed 260 people on June 12, the families of four victims have sued the aerospace manufacturers Boeing and Honeywell.

The complaint that was filed on Tuesday at Delaware Superior Court mentioned that the locking mechanism for the switch on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner could be turned off inadvertently or be missing, causing a loss of fuel supply and loss of thrust needed for takeoff, as per the Guardian.

The British daily reported that the plaintiff claimed that Boeing and Honeywell, which respectively installed and manufactured the switch, knew about that risk, especially after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cautioned in 2018 about disengaged locking mechanisms on several Boeing aircraft.

Preliminary investigation by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said Air India had not conducted the suggested inspections and that maintenance records showed the throttle control module, where the fuel switches are, was replaced in 2019 and 2023 on the plane involved in the crash.

As per reports, a cockpit recording of the exchange between the fateful aircraft's two pilots suggested the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines.

As per the complaint, the switches are in a place in the cockpit where they are more likely to be inadvertently pushed, which “effectively guaranteed that normal cockpit activity could result in inadvertent fuel cutoff”.

Boeing, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, declined to comment, while Honeywell, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, did not immediately respond to requests. Both companies are incorporated in Delaware.

The lawsuit, believed to be the first filed in the US over the crash, seeks unspecified damages on behalf of victims:

• Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal
• Naavya Chirag Paghadal
• Kuberbhai Patel
• Babiben Patel