The families of four passengers who were killed in the Air India crash in Ahmedabad in June this year, have filed a lawsuit in the US against Boeing and aircraft parts maker Honeywell, accusing them of negligence.
The case, filed on Tuesday and reviewed by the BBC, claims that faulty fuel switches caused the accident. It also accuses the companies of ignoring known risks in the plane’s design.
Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 heading to London Gatwick, crashed soon after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. Investigators have focused on the fuel switches after an initial report suggested that the engines stopped getting fuel right after takeoff. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had earlier said tht the fuel control switches in Boeing aircraft are safe.
The BBC reached out to Boeing and Honeywell for comment. Boeing did not respond directly to the lawsuit but noticed to the preliminary crash report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, reported BBC.
Design flaw or negligence – What does the lawsuit claim?
The lawsuit claims that Boeing and Honeywell were aware of the risk of a crash ever since they built and sold the 787 Dreamliner and its parts.
The BBC report said that the lawsuit referred to a 2018 FAA advisory that asked airlines to check the fuel switches’ locking system to make sure they could not be accidentally moved. However, this was only a recommendation, not a rule.
In the case of Air India flight 171, investigators said the fuel switch was moved from “run” to “cut-off,” which stopped the engines from getting fuel and reduced the plane’s thrust.
The families argued that this was a design flaw because it allowed the fuel supply to be cut off by mistake, leading to complete engine failure.
Boeing and Honeywell “sat idly” behind an advisory
The families, according to BBC, said that Boeing and Honeywell did nothing to prevent such a disaster.
The lawsuit further claims the companies failed to warn airlines that these switches needed urgent checks or repairs and did not provide replacement parts to fix the issue, the BBC report said.
The full detailed report of the crash is expected to be released in 2026.