Air India Crash: ‘No Pilot Would Tamper With Switches During Takeoff,’ Says Aviation Consultant

By IANS

<p>No pilot is stupid, or inept, to want to play around with switches in the middle section of cockpit when all attention is focused on forward flight cockpit instruments located in front of the pilots, during takeoff and landing, top aviation expert Mark Martin told IANS on Saturday.</p>
<p>Reacting to the preliminary findings by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the fatal crash of Air India flight AI 171 &mdash; a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that went down shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, Martin, who is CEO of Martin Consulting, an aviation safety firm in Asia, said that for a pilot, two most critical phases of flight are the take off and landing.</p>
<p>During this, all attention is on flight instruments and hand flying the aircraft to about (usually) 2000 feet then engaging the autopilot. Attention is on continuing flight and flight controls, never on the throttle quadrant, since thrust is set to MAX TAKE OFF THRUST :&nbsp; he told IA

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