A black box recording suggested one of the pilots cut the plane’s fuel flow. PEOPLE spoke to aviation expert Anthony Brickhouse about what that means

Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was the captain on the flight, while Clive Kunder, 32, was the co-pilot who was flying the plane. Together, the two pilots had more than 19,000 hours of flight experience - nearly half of it on the Boeing 787. Both had passed all pre-flight health checks before the crash.

The U.S. assessment is not contained in a formal document, said a source, who emphasized the cause of the deadly crash remains under investigation.