Citing Negligence, Air India Crash Victim Families Sue Boeing, Honeywell
The families of four passengers who died in the June crash of Air India Flight 171 sued Boeing and Honeywell, blaming their negligence and a faulty fuel cutoff switch for the accident, which killed 260 people.
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The fatal Air India Flight 171, which departed from Ahmedabad heading to London, crashed shortly after takeoff on June 12.
Families of four victims who perished in the June Air India Flight 171 disaster have initiated legal proceedings against Boeing and Honeywell. The lawsuit claims that negligence and a defective fuel cutoff switch were responsible for the accident that claimed 260 lives.
In legal documents submitted Tuesday to Delaware Superior Court, the plaintiffs alleged that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's switch locking mechanism could be inadvertently deactivated or was missing entirely, resulting in fuel supply interruption and insufficient thrust during takeoff.
According to the complaint, both Boeing, which installed the switch, and Honeywell, which manufactured it, were aware of this risk. The lawsuit specifically notes that the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued warnings in 2018 regarding disengaged locking mechanisms on various Boeing aircraft models.
"By positioning the switch directly behind thrust levers, Boeing effectively guaranteed that normal cockpit activity could result in inadvertent fuel cutoff," states the complaint. "What did Honeywell and Boeing do to prevent the inevitable catastrophe? Nothing."
When contacted on Wednesday, Boeing, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, declined to comment. Honeywell, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has not yet responded to inquiries. Both corporations are Delaware-registered entities.
This appears to be the first US lawsuit related to the crash.
The legal action seeks unspecified damages for the deaths of Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal, Naavya Chirag Paghadal, Kuberbhai Patel, and Babiben Patel, who were among the 229 passengers who died in the accident.
Additionally, 12 crew members and 19 people on the ground lost their lives. One passenger survived. The plaintiffs are citizens of either India or the United Kingdom and reside in one of those countries.
Investigators from India, the UK, and the US have not yet definitively determined the cause of the crash.
A preliminary investigation report released in July by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau described confusion in the cockpit prior to the crash.
Also in July, US FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford expressed "high level of confidence" that neither mechanical problems nor inadvertent movement of fuel control components were responsible for the accident.
Boeing previously faced over $20 billion in legal and other expenses following two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in a 20-month grounding of the best-selling aircraft.