An Air India flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in northwest India on Thursday afternoon native time, killing greater than 260 individuals.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, Flight AI171, was carrying 242 individuals certain for London. Just one passenger, a British man, survived.
The airplane crashed lower than a minute after takeoff, coming down on high of a faculty hostel round 1.5 kilometres from the runway. Little is understood up to now about the reason for the incident.
As an aviation security skilled, it’s onerous to keep away from a way of disbelief that an occasion resembling this – involving one of the crucial superior passenger jets on the earth, constructed on the teachings of many earlier accidents – might occur within the twenty first century.
Bother after takeoff
Air crashes resembling this one, wherein a airplane experiences bother instantly after takeoff, are actually extraordinarily uncommon. They have been extra widespread prior to now.
In a single notorious 1999 incident, 32 individuals died when LAPA Flight 3142 crashed throughout takeoff from Buenos Aires. Through the accident investigation, it emerged that the Boeing 737’s wing flaps had not been in the correct place for takeoff and the crew had ignored alarms from the airplane’s inside warning system.
The 2009 emergency touchdown of US Airways Flight 1549 on New York’s Hudson River additionally occurred shortly after takeoff. In that case, the issue was fairly completely different: a collision with a flock of Canada geese shut down each engines, resulting in a powerless plane.
Nonetheless, the aviation business places lots of assets into studying from accidents so that they don’t occur once more. LAPA Flight 3142 led to really helpful enhancements in pilot coaching and flight procedures. The principles for engine design have been modified after the “miracle on the Hudson”.
So no matter precipitated the Air India crash, it will not be one thing we now have seen earlier than.
How did one passenger survive?
One passenger survived the crash. We don’t know precisely how.
He was sitting in seat 11A, subsequent to an emergency exit. Studies say the airplane “broke in half”, and the passenger discovered himself within the entrance half whereas the rear caught hearth. He then walked from the wreckage and was discovered by rescuers.
Why did he survive when everyone else died? Analysis means that, typically, the seats in the back of the airplane are the most secure place to be in a crash – however this man was fairly near the entrance.
Based mostly on what we all know up to now, my skilled opinion is that we now have no higher clarification than to name it luck or a miracle.
The place to from right here?
We received’t have a transparent thought of what occurred till a full investigation has been carried out. Air crash investigations comply with a protocol laid out by an Worldwide Civil Aviation Group doc referred to as Annex 14.
India’s Plane Accident Investigation Bureau will lead this investigation, placing collectively a crew that might be assisted by representatives from the US Nationwide Transport Security Bureau and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Department, representing the international locations of the airplane’s producer and passengers aboard.
Rescuers sift by way of the wreckage of Flight AI171 in Ahmedabad.
Sam Panthaky / AFP by way of Getty Photographs
The crew will conduct a forensic investigation of the crash web site to make sense of what occurred. Alongside materials proof discovered on the web site, they are going to take a look at the info saved within the airplane’s “black box”, which incorporates information from the flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder, to find out about what occurred within the leadup to the crash.
A gradual, regular course of
Air crash investigations can take a very long time. Usually a preliminary report might be printed 3 to six months after the crash, adopted by a closing report a 12 months or two later.
The report will present factual info on the reason for the accident and make suggestions. Relying on the trigger, these may be modifications to upkeep procedures, pilot and crew procedures, and even the design of components of the plane.
Indian authorities will then disseminate these suggestions to whoever wants them all over the world. The method is gradual, but it surely strikes within the course of safer air journey. Everybody might be ready to seek out out and be taught.
Within the meantime, it’s finest to do not forget that we nonetheless don’t know what occurred or why. Everybody needs solutions, however hypothesis can do extra hurt than good.
