Seconds after taking off, Air India Flight 171, a state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner, falls from the sky. The cause: a simultaneous, catastrophic loss of power to both engines. The cockpit voice recorder captures a chilling exchange: one pilot asks the other, "Why did you cut off the fuel switches?" The reply: "I did not do so".
This episode of Daily Nuggetz dives deep into the preliminary accident report, exploring the terrifying question at the heart of the investigation: Was this a case of inexplicable pilot error, or did the plane's own advanced computer systems turn against the crew?
We explore the potential culprits, from a known mechanical flaw in the fuel switches that the FAA had previously warned about , to a "ghost in the machine"—a software glitch in the aircraft's Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system. With a history of software bugs causing similar uncommanded shutdowns on other 787s , the evidence points towards a complex battle between human and machine in the final, fatal moments of Flight AI-171. Join us as we analyze the data and ask what this tragedy means for the future of automated flight and the trust we place in the world's most sophisticated aircraft.
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