New Delhi. The fuel control switches for the engines of an Air India flight that crashed last month were moved from the "run" to the "cutoff" position moments before impact, starving both engines of fuel, a preliminary investigation report said Saturday.

The report, issued by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, indicated that both pilots appeared confused over the switch changes, which led to a loss of engine thrust shortly after takeoff.

The Air India flight, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed on June 12 in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, killing at least 260 people, including 19 on the ground, in one of India’s worst aviation disasters. Only one passenger survived.

The plane was carrying 230 passengers --169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian-- along with 12 crew members.

According to the report, the flight lasted around 30 seconds between takeoff and the crash. After the aircraft reached its top recorded speed, "the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another" within a second. The report did not state how the switches flipped to the cutoff position during flight.

The fuel control switches manage the flow of fuel to the engines.

The switches were flipped back into the "run" position, but the engines could not regain power quickly enough to halt the aircraft’s descent after it had begun losing altitude.

"One of the pilots transmitted 'MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY'," the report noted, adding that confusion in the cockpit was evident in the final moments.

On the cockpit voice recorder, one pilot asked the other why the fuel had been cut off, to which the other pilot responded that he had not done so, according to the report.

The preliminary report did not recommend any action for Boeing.

In a statement, Air India said it is fully cooperating with the authorities investigating the crash.

"Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators. We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses," the airline said.

The plane’s black boxes, which contain cockpit voice recordings and flight data, were recovered in the days following the crash and were later downloaded in India.

Following the crash, Indian authorities ordered deeper checks of Air India’s fleet of 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent future incidents.

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