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Well, reading the report, there seems to be some ambiguity. It’s unclear if the recorder is based off of the physical position of the fuel cutoff switches or off of a digital reading.
I have flown the 787. As for the switches themselves, they are in a detente and you have to pull them against a spring and over a notch to move them to the off position. It’s hard to imagine how they would be moved unintentionally, especially by these experienced pilots. The report says they were shut off within 1 second of each other.
One of the pilots asks the other why they shut off the switches, the other pilot denies it, and shortly afterwards they are turned back on but by then it’s too late.
So, I can see where the “murder/suicide” people are coming from, but it’s important to understand that this report is the preliminary report mandated by ICAO and is for informational purposes only. Only the final report will determine a probable cause for the accident, if it can be determined, and looking at the facts, it’s unlikely that they can come to a definite conclusion, since there is no video footage of the cockpit. If there was something wrong with the switches, they will be very lucky if they can still tell. If one of the pilots switched them off, it’s impossible to know which one and why, and who turned them back on (and if it was the same pilot after realizing a mistake).
I was reading somewhere that apparently there is an override for the fuel switches so they can be turned freely maybe they could have accidentally be bumped but from what you're saying that doesn't sound very likely.
Even if they made a mistake it could also be to something like drowsiness. that would mean they would have made a mistake but it's not their fault that the mistake was made in the first place.
The NTSB has managed to investigate and come up with pretty decent conclusions on crazy or things so I'm hoping they'll have something better in the final report.
There are a few ways to shut off the engine without touching the fuel switches, if this happened it should have been logged, but they haven’t released the raw data.
At this point in the flight the pilot flying should have both hands on the yoke, and the other pilot is responsible for raising the gear, flaps, making radio calls etc. Definitely neither pilot should have their hands anywhere near the fuel switches, but fatigue has been demonstrated to make massive mistakes possible. Raising the gear level is vaguely similar (you have to pull it out of a detente and flip it over a notch). Of course the gear lever is nowhere near the fuel switches, but that goes back to my point about fatigue. It’s extremely rare, but the safety mechanism for the switches has failed before, if this happened it would make accidentally flipping them an easier thing to do.
But as I’ve said, intent is a very hard thing to prove. The only times pilot suicide has unambiguously been proven is when they a)locked the other pilot out, or b) were recorded ranting and raving in the cockpit. Hopefully the AAIB can determine if there was a mechanical fault. But if they determine that the switches are the reason, I would guess the final report would say the cause is “due to activation of the fuel cutoff switches for unknown reasons”, or some variation of that.
Take Air France 447, for example. The first officer pulled the nose up while in a stall and held it in that position despite every pilot learning on day one to do the exact opposite. He continued to do so even when the captain told him to push the nose down. Was that pilot suicide? A possibility, yes, but something that’s unprovable.
That's very true but the report seem to paint Bonin As just simply making a mistake. He just defaulted to the wrong mode in a panic which is why he reacted the wrong way to the stall.
Even if they restarted the engines pretty quick would they have managed to avoid the crash?
Still I highly doubt this was a pilot suicide.