What Caused the Crash? Experts Study Video of Plane's Sudden Descent.

New York Times

a day ago

Plane crash investigations are incredibly complex and it can take months or even years to identify what went wrong. But video and photos of the Air India crash on Thursday prompted some early thoughts from aviation experts.
A widely shared video of the crash showed the plane descending over buildings with its nose pointed upward, an unusual position, said John Cox, a former airline pilot and chief executive of Safety Operating Systems, a consulting firm.
The plane's orientation looks like 'it should be climbing and in fact it's descending,' he said. 'The question is why.'
He and other experts cautioned against jumping to conclusions. Planes and the aviation system have many redundancies to prevent a single problem leading to a calamity. As a result, crashes are typically caused by multiple failures, which can include equipment malfunctions, improper maintenance, bird strikes or pilot error. Early hypotheses often are ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations.
Officials looking into the crash will have no shortage of questions to ask, said Greg Feith, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator.
'Did they properly configure the airplane when it took off? What was occurring with them? Was there a loss of thrust?' he said. 'Was there fuel contamination? Fuel starvation?'
The N.T.S.B., the lead U.S. agency in crash investigations, said it would send a team to India to help with the investigation, which will be led by India's aviation authorities. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would provide technical expertise and assistance, too.
The plane's black boxes should provide some early insights. The information on the flight data recorder includes time, altitude, airspeed and heading. The cockpit voice recorder can offer clues about the moments leading up to the crash, including what the pilots were saying, engine noises, stall warnings or other equipment sounds.
That data could be recovered within a day or two, with a readout to follow soon after, Mr. Cox said. 'Hopefully within a few days, we'll know why the airplane flew the profile that it did,' he said.