New Delhi: Non-retracted landing gear and retracted wing flaps may not have been enough to cause the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, pilots of the airline, who carried out a simulation of the take-off have said.
Even as India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the US go through the contents of the doomed aircraft’s black box, Air India pilots recently recreated the AI-171’s configuration using a simulator, replicating conditions such as deployed landing gear and retracted wing flaps.
According to Bloomberg, those who carried out this simulation said that those settings alone were not enough to cause a crash. This narrows down —narrowing the spotlight onto possible mechanical or electrical failure.
These new findings through the simulated flights, combined with the earlier discovery that the plane’s emergency power turbine deployed seconds before impact, led the pilots who conducted the recreation to zero in on a potential technical failure. The simulated flight was conducted separately from the official probe and was done to explore all possible scenarios.
According to a source, pilots are concerned that efforts may be made by the airline and the aircraft-manufacturer – the two primary stakeholders – to shift blame for the accident on the two pilots of the Ahmedabad-London flight. Some had already begun to suggest that the pilots may have erred by retracting the wing flaps instead of the landing gear. The simulation has now proved that even if that had happened, there was no way both engines could have failed simultaneously.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is equipped with two GE engines. Experts have said that the aircraft could have easily taken off even with one of them in working condition.
Pilots, who reviewed the crash footage closely, noted that there was an effort to retract the aircraft’s landing gear. This is evident from the fact that the landing gear appeared tilted forward. This is a sign that the retraction sequence may have begun. However, the gear doors had not opened. This could be an indication of a hydraulic failure or a broader power loss.
This suspicion is reinforced by the activation of the aircraft’s emergency turbine, known as the Ram Air Turbine or RAT, which deploys when there is a significant electrical failure. While the RAT can provide some support when an aircraft is at cruising altitude, it is far too small to provide thrust during a take-off.
