Boeing’s Black Box: Crack the Cause of Crash
With one more body recovered from the wreckage of Air India’s ill-fated plane on Saturday, the death toll has crossed 270. Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Saturday said, extended surveillance will now be made on all Boeing-787 planes. He said, the decoding of the black box recovered from the wreckage will give a deep insight into what could have actually happened when the plane crash took place.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau team has been given three months’ time to complete its inquiry. Meanwhile the medical college hostel building has been cleared to facilitate the probe team to complete its work.
The Director General of Civil Aviation has decided to make complete checkup of all Boeing aircraft compulsory before take-off. Cabin air pressure, wings, cockpit instruments and other systems will be checked before giving clearance.
Too many people on social media have now become aviation experts. Some say, the aircraft system could have been hacked, some others say, the system was suddenly ‘locked’ after takeoff, some speculate that the aviation fuel could have been adulterated.
I think there is no need to waste time on speculations now. Aviation continues to be the world’s safest mode of transport. There is a foolproof procedure for probing accidents. Independent experts do their work with the help of international organisations.
Some genuine aviation experts say that take-off is the riskiest part of any flight. Correct flaps, thrust and rotation speed are vital. There is less scope for errors in such fields. If the weather is hot, there is less chance of error. For an aircraft like Boeing-787 the chances of error are practically nil. The plane engines are fully powered and if the system fails or if there is any malfunctioning, the pilot can take over manual control.
The aircraft that crashed was flying at a very low altitude of 625 feet. It speed was at 174 knots and landing gear was down. This was indicative of some big error in take-off settings. Outside the temperature was 43 degree Celsius and the aircraft’s fuel tank was full. This could have made the situation difficult. A minor error in such a situation can prove fatal. The black box in such aircraft is quite advanced. Let us hope the exact reason of the crash will be revealed soon.
Plane Crash: Everything was in order, then what went wrong?
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane crash is one of the deadliest tragedies in aviation history. 241 out of 242 aboard the plane died and the lone survivor was a British national of Indian origin. The 13-year-old plane took off from Ahmedabad for London with 242 passengers, including 2 pilots and 10 crew members, and after going up to a height of 190 meters, crashed into a medical college hostel within 40 seconds, turning into a fiery ball. Five persons including doctors from the medical college died and nearly 30 others were injured.
The plane, with its tank full, was carrying nearly 33,000 gallons (1,35,000 litres) aviation fuel. The plane had come from Paris to Delhi on Wednesday night and had left for Ahmedabad to carry London-bound passengers on Thursday morning.
The AI-171 plane was being flown by Sumit Sabharwal with a flying experience of 8,200 hours and his co-pilot Clive Kunder had a flying experience of 1,100 hours. At the time of crash, the plane’s speed was 322 kmph.
Among the dead was former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who considered 1206 as his lucky number and had boarded the flight on 12/06.
Gujarat ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad) recovered the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) of the plane from the wreckage on Friday morning. An ATS official said, the forensic science lab team would also visit the crash site.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went to the crash site on Friday morning, wrote on X: “..The scene of devastation is saddening. Met officials and teams working tirelessly in the aftermath. Our thoughts remain with those who lost their loved ones in this unimaginable tragedy.” He met the lone survivor Ramesh Vishwas Kumar and other injured persons in hospital.
It appears the pilot might have noticed a technical glitch seconds before take-off, but at that speed, he had no option to stop the aircraft on the runway. Experts say, this could be the reason why the plane’s landing gear was not closed at the time of crash probably because the pilot wanted to make an emergency landing, but it crashed into a medical college campus.
I spoke to several experts and tried to understand the exact reasons behind the mishap. Firstly, the aircraft lost contact with Air Traffic Control within seconds of its take-off. Secondly, when it crashed, the plane was flying at a height of only 190 metres. Experts say, both engines of the aircraft are supposed to be active when the plane takes off, but the crash video clearly shows that the plane could not go up beyond a certain height. Normally, the nose of the plane points upward when it takes off, but the videos show the plane flying horizontally, indicating that the pilot was desperate in trying to make an emergency landing.
Aviation experts say, the plane clearly appeared to be struggling instead of taking off smoothly. The flaps of its wings were not in normal take-off position. Experts believe this was indicative of the engines having failed. Even if one engine stops functioning, the second one comes handy. In the past, there have been incidents when both engines of an aircraft failed when bird strikes damaged both engines. But those were the rarest of rare cases.
Was there a big mechanical fault? Did the plane’s electrical system crash? These are all questions that need answers, because Boeing Dreamliner had no past history of such failures.