(Recasts with updated sourcing, adds statements from AAIB and

NTSB)

July 18 (Reuters) - A cockpit recording of dialogue

between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last

month supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to

the plane's engines, said a source briefed on U.S. officials'

early assessment of evidence.

Following is a timeline of key events in the investigation

to date:

JUNE 12:

An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London

crashes shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad city, killing all

but one of the 242 people on board.

JUNE 13:

India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)

launches an investigation into the world's deadliest crash in a

decade.

Its multidisciplinary team is led by the director general of

the AAIB, and includes an aviation medicine specialist, an air

traffic control officer, and representatives from the U.S.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Two GE recorders, one in the jet's front and another

at the rear, are installed on Boeing's ( BA ) 787 jets. Both contain a

cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder with the same

sets of data.

One black box unit is recovered from the rooftop of a

building at the crash site.

JUNE 16:

The second black box unit is recovered from debris at the

crash site.

JUNE 24:

The two black box units were flown separately from Ahmedabad

to an AAIB lab in Delhi by Indian Air Force aircraft.

In the evening, the team led by the AAIB director general

with technical members from AAIB and the NTSB began the data

extraction process.

JUNE 25:

The memory module from the black box unit located at the

front of the plane was successfully accessed and its data

downloaded.

The forward recorder is equipped with an independent power

supply that provides backup power to the device for about 10

minutes if the plane's power source is lost.

JULY 12:

A preliminary report by Indian investigators said there were

no recommended actions to Boeing ( BA ) or GE at this stage, indicating

a fault in the aircraft or engines was unlikely.

It said one pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder

asking the other why he cut off the fuel. "The other pilot

responded that he did not do so," the report said.

It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight's

captain and which by the first officer, nor which pilot

transmitted "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" just before the crash.

A final report is expected within a year of the crash.

JULY 16:

The Wall Street Journal reports the first officer, who was

flying the plane, asked the more experienced captain why he

moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after

lifting off the runway.

JULY 17:

The AAIB said in a statement that "certain sections of the

international media are repeatedly attempting to draw

conclusions through selective and unverified reporting." It

added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to

draw definitive conclusions.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has been

assisting with the Air India investigation and its Chair

Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board

spokesperson said. That includes the cockpit voice recording and

details from the flight data recorder that the NTSB team

assisted the AAIB in reading out, the spokesperson added.