India, July 21 -- A theatre of the absurd has followed the release - in the early hours of July 12 - of preliminary findings of the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in the Air India crash last month.

The AAIB preliminary report clearly indicated that the crash was caused by dual engine failure triggered by a loss of fuel supply soon after take-off. What it left unanswered is what led to the fuel cut-off.

Two possible theories emerged as the report was dissected. One group's view was that some equipment failure led to the cut-off while the other favoured the view that the cut-off was triggered by deliberate manual action since the switches can't move through inadvertent human action.

A few, selective leaks to the international m...