New Delhi, July 12 -- A preliminary investigation into the Air India flight AI171 crash has revealed that just seconds before the aircraft lost power and went down near Ahmedabad airport, one pilot asked the other why he had cut off fuel to the engines, an action the second pilot reportedly denied, saying, "did not do so."

"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the preliminary report on the Air India crash said.

The report mentions that both engines of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner shut down one second apart shortly after takeoff. This caused the aircraft to lose altitude rapidly and crash near the boundary of Ahmedabad's Sardar Val...