Indian aviation expert dismissed claims made in the Wall Street Journal report on the Air India Al171 crash regarding the chances of the flight commander switching off the fuel controls while the official preliminary report by the Indian aircraft accident body only contains a short pilot denial and lacks the full cockpit voice recorder transcript.

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.

Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, vanished from the skies above Ahmedabad and crashed into a residential neighbourhood just