THE union representing pilots in India has hit back following criticism of the flight crew of Air India Flight 171, which crashed soon after take-off last month, killing 260 people.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said there was no indication that the crew had done anything other than to act “in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions.”

The union added: “The pilots shouldn’t be vilified based on conjecture.”

A preliminary report into the crash published on Saturday says that, seconds after the plane took off, both of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches moved to the cut-off position, starving the engines of fuel.

The cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage captures one pilot asking the other why he “did the cut-off. The other replied that he hadn’t.

It is not clear from the recording who said what. Flight data then shows the switches were then moved back into the “run” position but it was too late to stop the plane from crashing. 

There has been some speculation that one of the pilots intended to commit suicide.

But the ICPA warned that “to casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession.”