Breaking News - Air India 171 to London Gatwick crashes in Ahmedabad - 240+ Souls

[Zaphod58]

The videos show either flaps 0 or flaps 5. It looks more like 0. There’s almost zero chance that the crew raised flaps instead of gear as the handles are completely different and in different locations.

[Zaphod58]

Just read where the survivor said the loud noise happened about 30 seconds after takeoff.  Probably had already raised the gear and maybe retracted flaps, so the configuration we saw in the video was probably not the takeoff configuration.

There’s CCTV video from next to the runway. The configuration appears identical to the video showing the crash.

[RazorV66]

Misconfigured take off. It looks like they didn’t lower the flaps, although how they ignored the cockpit warnings, if they didn’t lower them, is going to be the question. Either they didn’t lower the flaps at all, in which case there would have been a warning horn going off, or they didn’t lower them enough/retracted them too soon, in which case there was no warning horn.

Just for my own knowledge, at what point in a normal takeoff would the flaps be retracted?

[devilhunter69]

Can someone explaine how that 1 survivor actually walked from the wreckage ?
I have been trying to work out a senario where he not only survived but was almost injury free ? I mean he didnt fall from the plane, he was in it at the moment of impact and the fuel ignition.

Considering that huge fireball must have been 800 to 1500 F, how on earth is it possible as statistically it must be close to impossible ?

[EXETER]

There’s CCTV video from next to the runway. The configuration appears identical to the video showing the crash.

Just saw the CCTV video.  You’re right. Looks like pilot error.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Can someone explaine how that 1 survivor actually walked from the wreckage ?
I have been trying to work out a senario where he not only survived but was almost injury free ? I mean he didnt fall from the plane, he was in it at the moment of impact and the fuel ignition.

Considering that huge fireball must have been 800 to 1500 F, how on earth is it possible as statistically it must be close to impossible ?

The grace of Krishna? 

Statistically close to impossible happens in plane crashes.

Juliane Koepcke

The 17-year-old Koepcke was the sole survivor of the crash in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. She fell about 10,000 feet while still strapped to her seat and then trekked for 11 days before being rescued. 

And...

The Serbian flight attendant who survived a 33,000-foot fall without a parachute was Vesna Vulović. She was a 22-year-old flight attendant with Yugoslav Airlines (JAT) when her plane exploded mid-air over Czechoslovakia in January 1972. 

Vulović's survival is considered a miracle. She was trapped in the tail section of the plane by a food cart, which landed in a snowy forested area, cushioning the impact. She suffered severe injuries, including a fractured skull and broken legs, but eventually recovered. Her story became an international sensation, and she was recognized in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest fall survived without a parachute.

Things have to line up just right to spare you, but it happens. 

He should buy a lottery ticket in any case.

[andy06shake]

Apparently there was one survivor (miraculously). He said there was a loud noise and then it crashed.  Given how low it was in the video and the fact that the landing gear were still down it looks like the “loud noise” might have been right about at liftoff. An engine failure at takeoff (from a bird strike for example) could explain the noise, but commercial aircraft are designed to lose an engine and still be able to climb out even at maximum takeoff weight. The video shows the aircraft as not having enough power to climb and basically descending with a nose up attitude at idle power, which would seem to imply that whatever happened affected both engines.

Looks like a hydraulic failure could have rendered the ailerons and rudder inoperable.

And with the gear down and flaps retracted, the plane would have lost the capability to climb.

Some kind of cascading failure, which led to loss of control?
 
Once the black boxes are decoded and the technical data is fully analysed hopefully they will know more.

[Zaphod58]

Just for my own knowledge, at what point in a normal takeoff would the flaps be retracted?

After a positive climb is established and they’re well clear of ground effect. There’s no possible take off where they would retract them immediately after take off like that.

[devilhunter69]

The grace of Krishna? 

Statistically close to impossible happens in plane crashes.

And...

Things have to line up just right to spare you, but it happens. 

He should buy a lottery ticket in any case.

I am aware of both Juliane Koepcke and Vesna Volovic.
Granted both are incredible (Koepcke was strapped to a row of seats and fell from around 10000ft into the Amazon Rainforest so although incredible, you can see how she survived) and Volovic was trapped in part of the fuselage and fell some 33000ft into a forest with snow so was somewhat protected).
OK that is pretty incredible but again you can see that it was possible.

With this, I simply cannot see how he survived the fireball let alone the impact.
I actually put this as more incredible than Volovic's survival and also Koepcke's.

I am looking forward to the explanation as and when it comes.

[putnam6]

The grace of Krishna? 

Statistically close to impossible happens in plane crashes.

And...

Things have to line up just right to spare you, but it happens. 

He should buy a lottery ticket in any case.

Dammit you beat me too it, but such horrible news at first I thought it was a smaller jet 240 lost. Going to London too... 


I was always mystified by the air crash survivor stories, most are just random flukes in timing, like turning your head during a speech, I digress

In the book Eyewitness to Disaster, there was a boy who survived a little while after the passenger jet he was on crashed in NYC. 

https://archive.org/details/eyewitnessto...ew=theater

He was about my age. He landed in a snow drift in the middle of a concrete building and the streets



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_New_Y..._collision