What caused the Air India plane disaster? Six main theories emerge – from mystery over landing gear to 40C weather
WHILE the exact cause of the horrific Air India crash is not yet known, speculation continues to swirl online.
The
Boeing
787 Dreamliner with 242 passengers on board -
and 11 children -
smashed into a doctors' hostel
in the west of India
on Thursday.
Advertisement
12
A fire officer stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft
Credit: Reuters
12
The Air India plane crashed into a medical college campus creating a huge fireball
Credit: x/nchorAnandN
12
The plane's tail can be seen sticking out of a building following the crash
Credit: AP
12
People sift through the debris of Air India flight AI171 as they search for survivors
Credit: Alamy
The
plane
was heading to
London Gatwick
when it
.
One of Flight AI171's two "black boxes" has reportedly been recovered - which should provide crucial evidence on the fatal five minutes between the plane's takeoff and impact.
Follow our live blog
The black box will provide technical information on details like time, airspeed, altitude and hearing.
Advertisement
Read more on World News
And the cockpit voice recorder may also offer vital clues such as any conversation between the two pilots, any engine noises or bangs, stall warnings or sounds of other equipment.
The crash killed at least 265 people - including those on board and locals on the ground.
As crash investigators begin to pour over that data, The Sun looks at six main theories as potential causes for India's worst ever aviation disaster.
Bird strikes
12
Aviation experts believe the aircraft's engines could have been struck by birds
Credit: X
Advertisement
A bird strike could have taken out both of the jet's General Electric engines.
Most read in The Sun
Exclusive
Latest
Exclusive
While a bird taking down something the size of a commercial airliner might sound fanciful, there are numerous examples.
Most famous was US Airways Flight 1549, which suffered double engine failure in 2009 after being hit by a flock of Canada geese shortly after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport.
The plane, captained by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson river - earning the tagline the "Miracle on the Hudson" since there were zero casualities.
Advertisement
Ahmedabad Airport is known to have a large avian population - a study in 2018 found the airport has 'a high potential of bird-aircraft collision hazards'.
Captain C S Randhawa, who has flown a Boeing 777 for 15 years, and was the former Deputy Chief Flight Inspector, Operations, at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said a bird strike was "the most probable' cause of the crash.
"Both Ahmedabad and Agra airports are full of birds. Incidents of aircraft being hit by birds keep happening on and off," he told The New Indian Express.
Aviation safety consultant and instructor Captain Mohan Ranganathan told the same publication: "Bird hit appears to be the reason as of now.
Advertisement
"Ahmedabad airport has a history of a huge bird population. I flagged this issue 17 years ago and have written extensively about it too."
Brit survivor WALKS AWAY unscathed from Air India plane crash after jumping from flaming jet
Captain Ranganathan claims that the birds are drawn to the slaughterhouses near the airport
He added: 'The reason for such a huge presence is due to slaughterhouses in the vicinity of airports which should never have been allowed.
"They are never relocated by the authorities because they are owned by politicians or their relatives.'
Advertisement
In January 2021, an identical plane to the one involved in Thursday's crash aborted a take-off in Mexico after birds flew into one of its engines.
Wing Flap Position
12
CCTV footage shows the doomed Air India Dreamliner taking off in Ahmedabad
Credit: ViralPress
Aviation experts have suggested that the position of the aircraft's wing flaps could have played a role in the disaster.
Video evidence suggests the flaps were fully retracted, which would have provided minimal lift.
Advertisement
The aircraft's landing gear also remained deployed throughout which would have increased potentially fatal drag.
One theory is that the landing gear was stuck and pilots retracted the flaps to reduce drag or that the flaps were faulty and caused the plane to stall.
Aviation expert Terry Tozer, author of Confessions of an Airline Pilot, told the BBC: "It's very hard to say from the video for sure, it doesn't look as if the flaps are extended and that would be a perfectly obvious explanation for an aircraft not completing its take-off correctly."
Marco Chan, a former pilot and a senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University, said: "That would point to potential human error if flaps aren't set correctly, but the resolution of the video is too low to confirm that."
Advertisement
Pilot error
12
The plane's captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience
The state-of-the-art Boeing 787-8 is highly automated, with human pilots making only key decisions - but human error cannot be ruled out.
Co-pilot Clive Kundar had more than 1,000 hours of flying experience and made the mayday call but Captain Sumeet Sabharwa at the helm had 8,000 hours - making him one of Air India's most experienced pilots.
Sabharwa was also a trained instructor, meaning he had a deep understanding of flying protocol.
Advertisement
Estimates suggest the amount of runway utilised by the pilots was less than 2,000 metres - when a full plane on a hot day usually needs a run of 2,500 metres.
Additionally, since the wing flaps are also set by the pilots before takeoff, with multiple checklists and procedures in place to ensure that they are positioned correctly, that could also be another source of human error.
Heat
12
Smoke billows from the crash site, with temperatures hitting 40C on the day
Credit: X
Planes get less lift on a hot day due to lower air density, and therefore they need to go faster to get as much lift as on a cooler day.
Advertisement
Flight AI171 took off in sweltering 40°C heat in the early afternoon sunshine.
The plane may have struggled to gain lift if it took off after a short runway take-off.
In his emergency mayday call, co-pilot Clive Kundar says "No thrust, losing power, unable to lift."
Technical Error
12
One of Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners taking off at London Heathrow Airport
Credit: Alamy
Advertisement
Catastrophic technical or engineering issues have not been ruled out.
The jet's complex design mean it could take months for a design or engineering fault to be pinpointed.
The Dreamliner has a spotless safety record - this is the first time the model has crashed since its introduction in 2011.
However, airlines using the Boeing plane have reported numerous issues with the engines, including a mid-air dive on a LATAM Airlines flight last yeear.
Advertisement
During hearings in Washington last year, a former Boeing engineer turned whistleblower urged the aerospace giant to ground all Dreamliners.
However, the aircraft manufacturer rejected the claims and said it had full confidence in the 787.
Overloading
12
People online have also speculated that the plane may have been over burdened
Credit: Ray Collins
The aircraft could also have been too heavy to take-off.
Advertisement
Danger of overloading could be increased - again - by adverse wather conditions caused by extreme heat.
But the weight of aircraft is usually carefully checked ahead of take-off and the theory is thought unlikely.
12
Securit personnel guard the crash site as night falls
Credit: Reuters
12
Security personnel stand next to the wreckage of a part of the Air India aircraft
Credit: Reuters
Advertisement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
14 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Lottery results and numbers: Lotto and Thunderball draw tonight, June 21, 2025
THE NATIONAL Lottery results are in and it's time to find out who has won a life-changing amount of money tonight ( June 21, 2025). Could tonight's £3.8 million jackpot see you handing in your notice, jetting off to the Bahamas or driving a new Porsche off a garage forecourt? 3 Could you win big tonight with the National Lottery? 3 Previous winners have gone on to build mansions and buy islands You can find out by checking your ticket against tonight's numbers below. Good luck! Tonight's National Lottery Lotto winning numbers are: 06, 10, 12, 13, 31 , 58 and the Bonus Ball is 15 . Tonight's National Lottery Thunderball winning numbers are: 07, 17, 28, 30, 37 and the Thunderball is 03 . The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778. READ MORE ON LOTTO The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket holder was £42million, won in 1996. Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, won £41million in November, 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool. TOP 5 BIGGEST LOTTERY WINS ACROSS THE WORLD £1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history's biggest lottery prize £1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline £633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin £625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017 £575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018 Sue Davies, 64, bought a lottery ticket to celebrate ending five months of shielding during the pandemic — and won £500,000. Most read in The Sun The biggest jackpot ever to be up for grabs was £66million in January last year, which was won by two lucky ticket holders. Another winner, Karl managed to bag £11million aged just 23 in 1996. The odds of winning the lottery are estimated to be about one in 14million - BUT you've got to be in it to win it. 3 Sandra Devine and her husband Mike won by chance - can you too?
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Inside dystopian town blitzed by 450 nukes plagued by suicides & cancer-riddled families issued ‘radiation passports'
GROWING up in the most nuked place on Earth, Maira Abenova has helplessly watched as cancer spread through her family. After years of living near the Semipalatinsk Test Site, she told The Sun how the devastating impact of the family ". Advertisement 14 The Semipalatinsk Test Site is the most nuked place on earth Credit: Getty - Contributor 14 The Semipalatinsk region in eastern Kazakhstan was a nuclear test site for the Soviet Union Credit: AFP - Getty 14 The Cold War relic sits near the border with modern day Russia Credit: Corbis Historical - Getty 14 Lake Shagan, also called the 'Atomic Lake', highlighted, is an offshoot of the Shagan River Credit: Wikipedia 14 Known as the Polygon, the 7,000 square mile nuclear testing site in north east Kazakhstan was nuked by hellish bombs from 1949 to 1989. Having been hit by a quarter of all Its infamous 'Atomic Lake' was blasted into existence 60 years ago by a bomb ten times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. And one of the site's most destructive detonations reportedly caused four times as many instances of severe radiation poisoning as the Chernobyl disaster. Advertisement Following 40 years of nuclear explosions which wreaked havoc on nearby communities, the consequences are still felt today. Kazakh authorities dished out eerie "radiation passports" to help and identify victims of the fallout - but these have failed to fully cover the tragic repercussions. Local resident Maira Abenova told The Sun: "After more than 30 years have passed, we can now say that for 40 years, an atomic war was waged on our beautiful land." Now a mum and grandma, Maira was raised in the neighbouring high-risk town of Semipalatinsk, which is by the Russian border and is today known as Semey. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun She is also the founder an advocacy group for victims of the tests called Committee Polygon 21. Maira detailed the tragic consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site which have scarred her own life. Inside 'world's most dangerous town' Wittenoom where just breathing could kill you "In 1971, before turning 60, my mother died of esophageal cancer," she said. "At that time, we could not know the cause of this disease." Advertisement After losing her mum, her sister passed away in 2013, nearly 25 years after the last recorded nuclear test. "In 2013, literally a month after surgery, my older sister passed away from breast cancer," Maira explained. Her husband was the next loved one to die as a result of the She said: "My husband was diagnosed with stomach cancer - he lived in agony for only a year and a half before he passed away." Advertisement Maira continued: "Just a few months after my husband's funeral, my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer. "He survived only three months." The devastating consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site then caught up with Maira herself. "Last autumn, I was diagnosed with the same disease," she said. Advertisement "I had an operation, but I don't know how much time I have left. "Our medical system offers little hope - not because we lack good doctors, but because the healthcare system, especially in our region, is in a deeply deplorable state." 14 Maira Abenova told The Sun what it was like growing up in Semipalatinsk 14 Image of the Chagan nuclear test, which created the 'Atomic Lake' on January 15, 1965 Credit: Wikipedia Advertisement 14 It features a notorious 'Atomic Lake' Credit: WIKIMEDIA 14 She added: "The worst thing is when doctors diagnose cancer. It's like a death sentence. "A sentence of a painful death. Without proper help and treatment." Advertisement Maira also noted that her local cancer clinic was "always overcrowded". Kazakhstan authorities estimate 1.5 million people have been exposed to the test site's residual fallout. Nearby populations suffered elevated rates of cancer, heart disease and infertility which were all linked to the tests. More babies were born with defects, missing limbs, Down syndrome and other disabilities - while the number of suicide rates among young people also rose. Advertisement A local city hall official even made the shocking claim that "people in the villages got used to suicides", according to a And grandma-of-two Maira confirmed this epidemic, saying that after the closure of the site, the higher rates of suicide were known as "Kainarsky syndrome". Despite the first ever bomb going off on August 29, 1949, four years after the end of World War II, radiation levels are still elevated, and children continue to be born with genetic mutations. Maira said: "This evil did not spare any family." Advertisement Reflecting on these haunting health impacts, she described the aspect that continues to trouble her most. "As for the photos showing the aftermath of the tests, I'd say the most frightening consequences aren't the physical deformities or developmental anomalies," she said. "But rather the lingering fear — the fear of dying from an illness that might not be visible on the outside. "The fear of a young woman giving birth to a child with disabilities, and so on." Advertisement 14 A total of 456 nuclear tests were conducted at the site Credit: AFP - Getty 14 Maira's very own 'radiation passport' 14 Statue of Igor Kurchatov, the 'father' of the Soviet nuclear program, in the city he was named after Credit: Getty The campaigner also detailed a closed-off town called Kurchatov which was built as the headquarters for the testing site and was only accessible with an official pass. Advertisement Codenamed Semipalatinsk 21, the base was full of nuclear scientists and military officers, and located on the picturesque bank of the Irtysh River. The top-secret town had 50,000 or so inhabitants who were all supplied with high quality produce sent straight from the capital. Meanwhile, locals outside the town lived in relative squalor with "empty store shelves", Maira explained. "It was built in a short time," she said of the city, which has been dubbed the Soviet version of Los Alamos. Advertisement "Since the city was built by the military, it resembles a military town - strict lines and no frills." The activist added that scientists timed each blast to match the wind direction - making sure the deadly fallout always blew away from their own HQ. And typical Soviet cover-ups meant that even the locals were unaware of the nearby tests for years. "We didn't know about it until the late 1980s, when information about the terrible tests conducted near us began to leak out to the public," she recalled. Advertisement Semipalatinsk's role in the Cold War by Harvey Geh Semipalatinsk Test Site, also known as the Polygon, played a central role in the Soviet Union's push to win the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. On August 29, 1949, the USSR detonated its first-ever atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, just four years after the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That explosion - codenamed RDS-1 or "First Lightning" - ended America's nuclear monopoly and officially launched the Cold War arms race. It was a near-copy of the US-made 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb, which America dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. Following the landmark explosion, Semipalatinsk became the main site for testing each nuclear development the Soviet Union made, including hydrogen bombs and experimental warheads. This allowed the USSR to gain data on blast yields and radiation fallout. From its inception in 1949 to its closure in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, 116 bombs were detonated in the atmosphere, while 240 exploded underground. A law created in 1992 meant victims could apply for a "radiation passport", which confirmed their exposure to the fallout and qualified them for certain benefits . Each person who had their application approved was given a little beige book with a big blue mushroom cloud on its front cover. Those holding their own document could then receive things like monthly compensation cash and longer holidays . This system was said to have worked in its initial phases. Advertisement But these days, the scheme is ineffective, according to Maira. She is now part of a renewed push to improve compensation and bring real justice to the lives of many who have been impacted. Maira said: "The law that was passed in 1992 is effectively defunct today, and its current provisions are discriminatory." 14 Observation tower ruins at the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan Credit: Getty Advertisement 14 The nuclear scientists were based in Kurchatov, named after renowned Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov Credit: Getty The passport grants holders £30 per month in benefits - barely enough to cover current medical costs - and those who move to live in a different region are disqualified from getting the money . Many locals have reportedly found it challenging to get official recognition for their children to also obtain the document. Emphasising the importance of petitioning for better support, Maira explained: "The hardest thing for us is that we feel doomed and unprotected." Advertisement Maira also heads the human rights organisation DOM, which has also played an important role forming initiatives aimed at protecting the rights of victims of nuclear tests. She says on social media that for the last three years, the organisation has been working "to shape new ways of addressing victims, to achieve significant change, and to expand dialogue with the state and the international community." Maira has won awards for her work supporting victims of the tests and participated in UN meetings calling for the ban of nuclear weapons. She left Committee Polygon 21 earlier this month but continues to work with victims of nuclear fallout through her leading role at DOM. Advertisement It is believed that more than one million people resided in and around Semipalatinsk - but today, only a few thousand people remain. The International Day against Nuclear Tests occurs every year on August 29, the day the first bomb went off in Semipalatinsk Test Site. Despite neighbouring locals living through the nuclear fallout of the site, it remains unclear exactly how dangerous living in the region is today. Scavengers have excavated the site in hopes of selling off scrap metal, while locals are known to use the "Atomic Lake" as a fishing spot. Advertisement Maira said she was aware locals like to go fishing there as they "have come to believe that it is safe". But since the landscape has been marred by nearly half a century of nuclear bombing, she said the area had partly lost its beauty. Read more on the Irish Sun "It is more reminiscent of the surface of the moon," she said. "A steppe and granite hills that have crumbled over time... scattered across by the atomic explosions." Advertisement
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Palestinians awaiting aid trucks are killed as UN warns of man-made drought
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Olivia le Poidevin ©Reuters Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza yesterday, many of whom had been trying to get food, local officials said, while the United Nations' children's agency warned of a looming man-made drought in the enclave as its water systems collapse. At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run local health authority said. Register for free to read this story Register and create a profile to get access to our free stories. You'll also unlock more free stories each week.
