Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Loss of Thrust or Bird Hit may have Caused the Accident: Experts
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 12: Even as official information about the possible causes of the crash of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner immediately after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon, the exerts after analysing the visuals surmised that there could be a loss of thrust or lift or a bird hit may have caused the mishap.
The experts said there could be catastrophic failure to gain lift and climb happened at a very low altitude of 825 feet. The pilots struggled to stay in the climb just before they raised a Mayday call and the plane went down.
Aviation expert Sanjay Lazar said the cause could be anything from multiple bird hits to wrong take-off configuration. The plane’s engine seems to have lost thrust, experts have said. Its landing gears were also still down. The plane was carrying 242 people and so it was loaded with fuel to reach London in the long flight.
Flight tracking platform FlightRadar has revealed that the last signal from Air India flight AI171 was received seconds after take-off and it gained an altitude of 625 feet before it crashed. Thick plumes of smoke were seen rising into the Ahmedabad skyline seconds after the crash.
“Air India flight #AI171 was scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad International Airport to London Gatwick Airport. The signal from the aircraft was lost at 08:08 UTC (13:38 local time) at 625 feet, less than a minute after take-off,” FlightRadar said. The flight tracking platform added that the last signal was received around 1:38 PM, just moments before it took off.
While Ahmedabad airport has been shut, the number of injured or casualties in the horrific crash is not known yet.
