The most critical events that led to Air India Flight 171 crashing into a building in Ahmedabad in June unfolded within eight seconds. The clock begins running when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s wheels leave the ground and ends when emergency power begins to flow to the troubled airliner via the ram air turbine, (RAT). Efforts by the pilots in the 24 seconds that followed could not provide what they needed to save the day; more thrust/more altitude/more time.

So I want to write about those eight seconds, as presented, warts and all, in the preliminary report of India’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau.

Six significant events start at 8:08:39 (GMT) on Thursday, June 12th. Three are time-stamped; 3 others are not. There is no explanation for this inconsistency which results in a notably imprecise accounting of this critical period.

8:08:39 Flight 171 becomes airborne

Time not noted The RAT deploys “immediately after takeoff”

8:08:42 Aircraft achieves its maximum airspeed of 180 knots

Time not noted but after 8:08:42 The fuel cutoff switches transition to CUTOFF.

Time not noted One pilot asks the other,“Why he did cutoff?” Reply is “did not do so.”

8:08:47 The ram air turbine (RAT) supplies power

From this data and the videos of the plane taking off, it is clear the trouble started immediately. Something triggered the RAT to activate on takeoff. This could be an electrical, hydraulic, or engine failure. It would be HUGELY important to know if the RAT deployed before or after the fuel cutoff switches were activated sometime after 08:42. Did the loss of fuel flow trigger the RAT or was the fuel flow the next step in a failure chain? Since this timing information comes from the combined cockpit and flight data recorders, why is it left out of the report?

“The Air India pilots are all upset because of  all this,” said Joseph Thomas, an aeronautical engineer and retired test pilot who lives in India, “because what is doing the rounds is that the pilot switched off the engines.”

This kind of speculation is not confined to India, it is key element in news stories around the globe.

A pilot intentional act was given a boost with the release of another untimed exchange between Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal, who was monitoring the flight, and first officer Clive Kunder, who was the pilot flying.

Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal had 85 hundred hours on the 787 Dreamliner

Not only is the time stamp missing, the report does not identify who is saying what. This isolated paraphrase from the cockpit voice recorder has turned the public’s focus to the notion that the crash was the result of an intentional act by one of the pilots.

“I think the pilots acted very commendably,” Joseph Thomas told me. “The idea that the pilots deliberately switched off or accidentally switched off the engines it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t hold water.”

Here’s something to consider. If the first officer was questioning the captain, a man with 85 hundred hours on the 787 and a handful of flights before his retirement, how might your perception change than if it was the captain asking the junior pilot?

First officer Clive Kunder was the pilot flying

But who was asking the question and who answered is entirely knowable via placement of the mics in the cockpit and comparison of their voices from ATC communications. Except in unusual cases, the pilot monitoring is the one communicating on the radio.

Not presenting consistently progressive timing has also created inconsistencies. For example, the time required from trigger to activation of the RAT takes between 6-8 seconds. If the RAT deployed immediately after takeoff, (08:39) it should begin providing power by 8:47, as the preliminary report suggests at one point in the document.

At another point, however, the AAIB says the fuel switches “transition” to cut fuel flow to the engines after the plane achieves the max airspeed at 8:42. In this description, and given the assessment that the cutoff switches moved sequentially and took 1 second, there would not be sufficient time for the RAT to provide power by 8:47.

The precise second-to-second timing of that transition is available, according to Sam Thomas, head of the Air Line Pilots’ Association in India. The flight data “on the 787 is capable of recording the position and movement of the fuel control switches.”

Like many others, both aviation professionals and armchair investigators, Thomas, a former airline pilot, has his ideas about what might have happened on June 12th. But his message to me this afternoon was not about what could have been but what ought not to be.

“All we’re saying is give us the complete data,” he said. “Unless we have the complete data, you would not be able to make an educated guess.”