What led to Air India crash? Pilots simulate accident, find key flaw, says report

While the reason behind the crash of the ill-fated AI-171 jet is yet to be ascertained, Air India pilots re-enacted the aircraft's parameters in a flight simulator and identified technical malfunction as a possible cause, Bloomberg reported, quoting sources.

As part of the simulation, the pilots kept the landing gear deployed and the wing flaps retracted. However, it was found that these configurations alone would not have resulted in a crash.

Air India has declined to comment on the findings. "These are speculations, and we will not be able to give any comments at this time," an Air India spokesperson told India Today.

WHAT SIMULATION FOUND?

Pictures of the wreckage of the doomed Boeing 787 Dreamliner showed that the flaps were in an extended position, and not retracted, as speculated. The flaps provide the extra lift required by an aircraft during the take-off and landing phases when its speed is slow.

The London-bound aircraft crashed into a medical college campus within seconds of takeoff in Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board, and another 34 individuals who were on the ground.

The results, along with several expert analyses, have reinforced the technical failure angle as one possible cause of the crash.

An aviation expert, former US Navy pilot Captain Steve Scheibner, has suggested dual engine failure might be behind one of the worst aviation accidents in India in several decades.

In an interview with India Today, he said the deployment of the ram air turbine (RAT) shortly after takeoff pointed to a dual engine failure.

The simulation was conducted separately from the official investigation being carried out by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Sources told Bloomberg that it was done to explore possible scenarios.

The analysis of data from the black boxes of the doomed Air India aircraft is currently underway at the AAIB's laboratory in Delhi. It will help in reconstructing the sequence of events leading to the accident as well as give an idea why both engines simultaneously lost power.

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