[zarzavat]

Would anyone be surprised if an accomplished concert pianist played C Bb Bb instead of C E in a piece they had played thousands of times correctly?

The only difference here is that the consequences are death instead of mere head shaking.

Murder needs more proof than just performing the wrong action. Until then we should apply Hanlon's Razor.

[Mawr]

That's a ridiculous analogy. The pilots aren't sitting in front of a uniform set of keys that they need to press in a specific order with a specific timing.

The mistake equivalent to what the pilot supposedly did would be if the pianist accidentally stuck a finger up his nose instead of playing the notes or something.

[zarzavat]

Quite, but the point is that even after doing something correctly a thousand times, someone can make a mistake that seems unbelievable.

The cutoff switches are operated every flight so the muscle memory is there, ready to be triggered at the wrong time.

All we know is that something went wrong in the pilot's head in at least a single moment that caused him to perform a ground action during takeoff.

Depressive murder-suicide is one possible explanation. Altered mental state is another: insomnia, illness, drugs/medications could all explain an extreme brain fart. Perhaps he just had food poisoning? It's India after all.

[agubelu]

I keep reading "muscle memory" but the theory that one pilot shut down the engines instead of performing another action has nothing to do with muscle memory.

Muscle memory allows you to perform both actions effectively but doesn't make you confuse them. Especially when the corresponding sequence of callouts and actions is practiced and repeated over and over.

All of us have muscle memory for activating the left blinker in our car and pulling the handbrake, but has anyone pulled the handbrake when they wanted to signal left?

[rogerrogerr]

Another comment has the right analogy: has anyone here accidentally unplugged their mouse when they meant to hit caps lock?