The disaster of the Flight AI171 by Air India in a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner He crashed on a dormitory for university students 28 seconds after take -off from Ahmedabad airport, causing at least 240 victimsis among the most serious tragedies in the world of aviation of the last decade. On board at the time of take -off they were present in total 242 peoplespecifically 169 Indians, 53 British, 1 Canadian and 7 Portuguese, and 12 crew members. Of these, only one managed to survive the crash, the forty year old Vishwash Kumar Rameshwhile the number of victims on the ground remains unknown. Investigations have been started which, hopefully, will answer the main questions relating to the causes and dynamics of this terrible disaster. In the meantime, let’s try to reconstruct what we know about what happened and what could have caused the accident.
What happened in the airplaneing in India
The protagonist of the accident is the AI171 that on June 12 he should have brought passengers from the airport of Ahmedabad, in India, allGatwick airport, in London. A few moments after raising from the ground and a height of about 130 meters, The signs from the plane ceased and, as clearly visible from the videos circulated on the net, started to go down to a speed of 320 km/h Compared to the soil and a vertical speed of 140 meters per minute.
A few tens of seconds after take -off the plane is precipitate on a residential areahitting a student hostel. The impact caused it before an explosion And then a great fire, which gave birth to a column of black smoke visible from km away.
The possible causes of the disaster
Let’s clarify immediately: The exact causes of the disaster are not yet known. When accidents of this type happen, in fact the authorities employ months To reconstruct in detail what happened and, consequently, who is the responsibility of a similar tragedy. Probably in a few weeks the preliminary report And therefore we will update you with official data as soon as it is released. Having said that, at the moment, however, we have information of which we can discuss. And to do this we contacted a line pilot who preferred to remain anonymous.
For example, it seems that the pilots immediately realized that something was wrongand this would be testified – according to what reported by various press agencies but not yet officially confirmed – by their own Mayday to the control tower due to a loss power to both engines. Precisely for this reason the vehicle would have lost porcity, starting to by plants, as seen in the video. There lift, To be clear, it is that vertical thrust that pushes on the wings, allowing the plane to take flight. Keep this concept well that we talk about it afterwards.
The run -up on the track
In addition, a first hypothesis claimed that the plane had fallen because she had not taken enough run on the track. In reality, the same Flightradar24 – which is a portal that traces and monitors all the flights in the world – after analyzing the data at their disposal in detail, confirmed that the vehicle has traveled in full 3.5 km long track length 23. Indeed, from the closed circuit chambers you can see that a fuss When the vehicle takes off: this means that the plane probably reached the final end of the track. And this in turn is a clue that the engines could have lost power and therefore the plane would have detached from the late track.
The trolley lowered
Another much discussed aspect is that relating to trolley lowered. Normally the cart is the first thing that is raised after take -off, but the fact that it was still down, once again, could indicate that the pilots immediately noticed that something was wrong and therefore had other priorities compared to the lifting of the cart. Surely having the trolley lowered increases friction and contributes to making the earnings of the share even more difficult.
Flaps
Also i flap On the wings it seems to be retracted at the time of take -off, while they should be extracted … but in all honesty the quality of the filming does not allow to affirm with certainty that they were retracted, so this remains an element on which we cannot say much. The flaps, so to speak, are the movable parts in the back of the wings, which can get up and lower to increase the lift of the plane. During the take -off they must necessarily be extracted: if they were instead retracted, they would have been able to have problems in taking altitude. It is also possible that the flaps, for some technical problems or by human error, have been Retract immediately after take -off himself, and this would have caused a loss of lift that prevent the plane from continuing with the flight, crashing to the ground. But nothing is known about this at the moment.
What can cause the power loss of the engines
Speaking in general we can mainly mention two types of events that can create such a situation. The first is the Bird Strikethat is, the collision of the vehicle with birds. These can end up in the engines and send them to failure. A very famous case is that of Flight US Airways 1549 landed in the Hudson river in 2009. Another possible cause is that of Fuel Contamination: If the fuel for some reason is contaminated by impurities, the performance of the engines can also decrease drastically, causing an important loss of power.
I repeat, we do not know if one of these two causes is that relating to the Indian case, but in general these are two of the possible mechanisms that can create a simultaneous loss of power to both engines, which otherwise from a point of view of plants are completely independent.
