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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Pilots have been looking for an alternative explanation to a deliberate action on pprune, but it’s hard to come up with one that is consistent with the timing of the switches being turned off, the long delay in turning them back on (10 sec after one pilot noticed), and the mechanics of the switches (the switches have to be pulled out and then turned).

[b]The long delay in turning the switches back on is troubling[/b]. A mechanical issue that would cause the switches to malfunction seems unlikely because they were so simple. And the report doesn’t mention any further conversation between the pilots after one noticed the switches were off. You would think that pilots would immediately troubleshoot the problem together. I wonder if the lack of transcript after this point is an intentional omission because of the preliminary nature of the report, or whether the pilots then physically grappled over the switches, etc.

Some have wondered if switches left in the intermediate position, that is, pulled out but not engaged in on or off, could fall into the off position, but the description of the switch as having a mechanical gate means that the circuit wouldn’t be connected unless the switch was resting in the on or off position.

The report is well written and it’s clear that there is more information to come. There was an interesting detail that the aft black box was completely destroyed and no data was able to be recovered from it, but the forward black box was usable.

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/3e6e572bb0cd57e7/8d66090a-full.pdf

[/quote]There was no long delay but it takes a jet engine a long time to spool back up again and produce power.  It's not like a piston engine where once you give it gas, it responds nearly immediately.  [/quote]

The report says:

“ 08:08:42 Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position.
One of the pilots asks the other why did he cutoff.
The other pilot responded that he did not do so.
08:08:52 Engine 1 fuel cutoff switch transitioned from CUTOFF to RUN
08:08:56 Engine 2 fuel cutoff switch also transitions from CUTOFF to RUN

This language sounds like the data recorder was able to detect when the switches were thrown, not when the engine produces power. I interpreted the report’s timeline as a ~10 sec delay between the time the pilot noted the switches in the CUTOFF position to the switches being placed in the ON position. Ten seconds is a long time between noticing that fuel has been cut off to correcting the problem, especially when both engines were failing and a crash was imminent without them. 
[/quote]

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