Veteran pilot who flew for 40 years says Air India crash was inevitable and explains what he thinks went wrong
On Thursday (June 12), an Air India flight bound for London crashed into a residential area within a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing all 241 passengers and dozens more on the ground.
Miraculously, 40-year-old British man Vishwash Kumar Ramesh crawled out from the burning wreckage that had collided into a medical college hostel before erupting into a massive fireball.
He is the sole survivor of the doomed AI171 jet.
Campbell Wilson, CEO & MD of Air India, has said the company will be issuing financial support to to those affected with an interim payment of 25 lakh rupees, or approximately £21,000 (around $28,000), to each of the families of the deceased and the survivors.
Since the airplane came down on Thursday, the authorities confirmed its black box has been recovered from the crash site and an investigation is underway to determine what happened.
However, expert pilots with decades of experience under their belts have been speaking out with their theories over what they believe happened.
Ross Aimer, who worked for top airlines including United Airlines for 40 years, told The Express that he’s not ‘surprised’ by the crash, citing issues with the Boeing jet.
Aimer said: “I’m shocked, but knowing some of the issues with the 787, I’m not that surprised.
“It was bound to happen.”
The crash is the first involving the specific model since it was introduced in 2011, however, the Federal Aviation Administration says it has had to investigate several concerns over the years.
The only insight available for the Air India crash is its takeoff footage – and the fact that the captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, had called out down his radio: “Mayday […] no thrust, losing power, unable to lift.”
Aimer, from California, added that it’s ‘way too early to speculate’ based on this information.
“There’s no way we know enough to even think about what may have gone wrong, but I saw the initial video of the takeoff,” he continued. “The aircraft was full of fuel and bound to Gatwick. It’s a tragedy, but we have no idea what may have caused the airplane to crash.
“Looks like the weather may not have been an issue because you probably saw the video, it’s in clear skies. The only thing I could think of is possibly an engine failure, because the aircraft sinks on takeoff. It’s at its highest gross weight at that time.”
His comments come as commercial airline pilot, Captain Steve, took to YouTube to walk through three possible theories, from power loss to the ‘unlikely’ scenario that the jet managed to take off without its flaps up.
Steve said it is ‘inconceivable’ that the jet took off without the flaps, stating the pilot would have had to manually override checklists and ignore a ‘racket,’ with a big reg light, caution light and ‘deafening’ horn.
Aimer seemed to agree with the flaps theory, adding: “”It looks to me like that aircraft basically sank into the ground. I don’t know about the flaps, but the 787 is perhaps the most advanced technology available at this moment.”
The veteran flyer also said he suspects the authorities might consider grounding the jet.
“Air India may have had the Rolls-Royce Trent engine option on it. There was some controversy on that engine itself. It’s called the Trent engine, and it had been grounded for a while,” he explained. “It had issues with corrosion and cracks within the engine. So it’s not only the aircraft itself, it’s a possibility that there was an engine issue too. I’m sure the authorities will look into this. In the past we’ve had engines and aircraft grounded, and I’m sure if they find out that there are any issues to be looked at, they will think about grounding the airplane.”
He concluded: “To make a blanket statement that the aircraft is not safe would be irresponsible. But I’m not surprised, because we know there were a lot of problems with this aircraft, and they continue to have issues with manufacturing.”
“I don’t blame people being leery about aviation after all these crashes that are happening.”
Source: unilad.com