AKIPRESS.COM - The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has named sabotage as a possible cause of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash in India, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told NDTV.

"AAIB is probing from all angles, including sabotage. The CCTV footage are being reviewed and all angles are being assessed... several agencies are working on it," he said.

Mohol also said the black box of the Air India flight AI 171 that has been recovered is in AAIB's custody and will not be sent outside the country for a thorough assessment.

In an interview with The Times of India, Mohol said that the sabotage theory appeared due to the sudden shutdown of both engines a few seconds after takeoff. According to him, such incidents had not occurred before.

An unusual shutdown of both engines was reported on June 16 by American Airlines independent aviation expert Steve Schreiber. Other analysts also noted that the crash could have been caused by a failure of the engine electrical system, since Boeing 787 Dreamliner depends on electrical systems.

The Boeing crashed near the Ahmedabad airport in western India on June 12. The plane crashed into a medical college dormitory in a residential area shortly after takeoff. There were 242 people on board. Only Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen of Indian origin, survived in a crash. In total, 274 people died, including victims on the ground.