‘Bird strike a possible cause'
The tail of the airplane is seen stuck in a building at the site of an airplane that crashed in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Investigators will need to understand the nature of a mayday transmission from an Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday, but a possible cause could be a bird strike, preventing the plane from achieving the optimum speed for take-off, aviation experts said.
Aviation professional Hemanth DP said that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had a spotless record.
'If a plane of this calibre and size has to crash at such a low height of about 600 feet (183m) minutes after take-off, it must have been a catastrophic failure,' said Hemanth, chief executive officer of Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy in Hyderabad.
Air India Flight AI171, carrying 242 passengers and crew members, was heading to London Gatwick Airport when it crashed shortly after take-off.
Hemanth said it was too early to tell with certainty what had happened, based on amateur videos of the crash taken from the ground.
He said it would take a very large flock of birds, and both engines ingesting the birds simultaneously, to bring the plane down so quickly after take-off.
A bird strike is considered one of the most common wildlife hazards in aviation. It tends to happen during take-off, landing, or low-altitude flight, when planes are most likely to encounter birds.
Bird strikes can be dangerous, especially if birds are ingested into aircraft's engines or hit critical components such as the windscreen or wings.
Over 90% of bird strikes occur at low altitudes during take-off and landing.
When a bird strike occurs, pilots may declare a mayday emergency.
The Air India pilot made a mayday call before the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said.
A bird strike was believed to be a factor in the crash of a Jeju Air plane in South Korea in late December 2024, which killed 179 people. Feathers and blood were found in both engines.
The Boeing 737-800 plane, which departed from Bangkok for Muan county in south-western South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the regional airport's runway, bursting into flames after hitting an embankment.
One of the pilots reported a bird strike and declared an emergency shortly before trying to land.
In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
The plane, an Airbus A320, had flown into a flock of geese, severely damaging both engines.
Michael Daniel, managing director of consultancy Aviation Insight, said the nature of the mayday emergency transmission will be crucial information for investigators.
Video footage shows the plane's landing gear was down and the flaps retracted.
'This would be counter to normal take-off procedures unless the 'declared' mayday affected the take-off,' said Daniel, who is also a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators.
'Normally, (raising) the gear up is one of the first items to do soon after rotation, in order to gain airspeed.'
Rotation refers to the point when the pilot takes off from the surface of the runway, raising the nose of the airplane to fly.
While it would be presumptuous at this point to draw any conclusions, he added that the video footage will give some indication of the data to be used in investigations.
'Setting aside the search and rescue efforts, the investigators will need to locate and interpret (what is on) the data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder,' he said. — The Straits Times/ANN
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Air India says plane 'well-maintained' before crash
NEW DELHI: Air India's Boeing plane was "well-maintained" before it crashed a week ago, killing all but one of 242 people on board, the airline said Thursday (June 19). Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle to the ground in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 38 people were also left dead. As investigators attempt to retrieve data from the plane's black boxes -- the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder -- the airline said that no problems were detected with the jet before the disaster. "The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023," Air India said in a statement. "Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight," the airline said. The London-bound jet burst into a fireball when it smashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad moments after takeoff. Initial checks since the crash on Air India's Dreamliners "did not reveal any major safety concerns", the country's civil aviation regulator said Tuesday. India's aviation investigative unit said Thursday the probe was "progressing steadily". "Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has been completed, and further analysis is now underway," the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said in a statement. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. The airline said Thursday the pilots were accomplished flyers. "The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft," it said. "First Officer Clive Kunder, had over 3,400 hours of flying experience." While investigators try to piece together what went wrong, families of dozens of victims are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified. As of Thursday, 210 victims have been identified through DNA testing, state health minister Rushikesh Patel said. - AFP
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- New Straits Times
Air India says plane 'well-maintained' before crash
NEW DELHI: Air India's Boeing plane was "well-maintained" before it crashed a week ago, killing all but one of 242 people on board, the airline said Thursday. Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle to the ground in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 38 people were also left dead. As investigators attempt to retrieve data from the plane's black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder – the airline said that no problems were detected with the jet before the disaster. "The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023," Air India said in a statement. "Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight," the airline said. The London-bound jet burst into a fireball when it smashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad moments after takeoff. Initial checks since the crash on Air India's Dreamliners "did not reveal any major safety concerns", the country's civil aviation regulator said Tuesday. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. The airline on Thursday said the pilots were accomplished flyers. "The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft," it said. "First Officer Clive Kunder, had over 3,400 hours of flying experience." While investigators try to piece together what went wrong, families of dozens of victims are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified. As of Thursday, 210 victims have been identified through DNA testing, state health minister Rushikesh Patel said.
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Indian canteen worker's hopes dashed, no second miracle in air crash
FILE PHOTO: A fire officer stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. - Photo: Reuters AHMEDABAD, (India): Ravi Thakor had been hoping his mother and two-year old daughter had escaped just before an Air India jet crashed into the building they were in. A week after one of the world's worst aviation disasters killed more than 270 people in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Thakor's hopes were dashed when doctors matched his DNA on Wednesday (June 18) with the remains of his mother Sarla and daughter Aadhya. A canteen worker in a college hostel, Thakor and other family members had left the hostel around 30 minutes before Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft crashed into the building. Sarla had stayed back, cooking and looking after Aadhya, who was asleep. Thakor and his wife Lalita searched for them in hospitals and the morgue after the crash. After not finding them for days, they said they were hoping for a "second miracle", referring to the lone passenger aboard the plane who survived the disaster. On Thursday, the dead bodies were handed over to Thakor's family for the final rites. "We are going to cremate my mother and daughter. It is very difficult for me to say anything right now, but at least we know what happened to them," Thakor said, struggling to speak. At least 211 DNA samples had been matched, and 189 dead bodies handed over to families, Rakesh Joshi, the medical superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told reporters on Thursday. The dead included 241 people on board the plane and at least 30 on the ground. - Reuters
