A cockpit voice recording of doomed Air India Flight 171 indicates the younger co-pilot asked his more experienced colleague why he turned off the plane’s fuel-supply switches, according to people familiar with the matter.

According to a report published on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal quoting sources close to United States officials’ early assessment of evidence, the black box audio recording of the last conversation between the two pilots indicates that the captain might have turned off the switches controlling the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines.

According to the Wall Street Journal, sources close to the US side of the investigation have said the voice cockpit recording suggests Sabharwal turned off the switches, one after the other, exactly a

The report and India’s inspection order referred to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 that recommended that carriers using Boeing models, including the 787, inspect the locking mechanism of the fuel control switches to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Air India has completed the inspection of fuel control switches on Boeing 787 planes with no issues being found, Indian broadcaster NDTV said on Wednesday, citing an official.

International airlines from South Korea and India are preparing to inspect its Boeing fleets following findings from the Air India crash investigation.

The cousin of a man who died in the Air India plane crash has called for cockpit recordings from the flight to be released. A total of 260 people were killed when the Boeing 787 flight bound for Gatwick crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, India, on 12 June.