The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the Air India crash last month wasn’t the result of a mechanical issue in the fuel control mechanism.
Nor was it caused by an inadvertent movement of the fuel control unit or its switches.
“We can say with a high level of confidence is it doesn’t appear to be a mechanical issue with the Boeing fuel control unit,” FAA chief Bryan Bedford said.
“We feel very comfortable that this isn’t an issue with inadvertent manipulation of fuel control,” he added.
Bedford said technicians had extensively inspected the fuel switch cutoff mechanism and found no flaws.
The crash investigation has focused on the fuel control switches in the Boeing 787 jet.
It crashed just after takeoff killing all but one of the 242 people onboard.
The switches regulate fuel flow to aircraft engines, allowing pilots to shut them down during engine failures or fires.
Air India said it completed inspections of all 787 and 737 aircraft, with no issues found in the fuel switch system.
The initial report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found the switches almost simultaneously flipped to the cutoff mode right after takeoff.
