Gaurav Taneja, aka Flying Beast, reveals ‘every flight has snags' but airlines have ‘habit' of ignoring safety issues
While dissecting the recent Air India Flight 171 crash, YouTuber Gaurav Taneja ruled out several theories that are being floated online. He had initially suggested that the only way a Boeing 787 could crash in the way that Flight 171 did is if it experienced a dual engine failure. In a recent video, he seemed to point in the direction of pilot error, as he suggested that one of the pilots might have killed the wrong engine after takeoff, assuming that one had already died on the runway. In the same video, he ruled out bad weather, stating the data that is publicly available about the conditions on the fateful day of June 12.
Taneja also spoke about safety standards in Indian aviation. Some years ago, he blew the whistle on practices that he perceived to be unsafe at Air Asia, and was fired from his position. Taneja is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur, and worked as a commercial pilot for a decade before becoming a full-time YouTuber. In his new video about the Air India Flight 171 crash, which claimed 270 lives, he said, 'In the event of bad weather, the aircraft warns the pilots to either delay takeoff or abort takeoff… A 787 has two radars, one on the left and one on the right. For dispatch, it is necessary for at least one to be functional.'
Also read – 'Pilots know something that public doesn't' about Air India 171 crash, says Gaurav Taneja, aka Flying Beast: 'They are refusing to fly'
Taneja then explained the concept of Minimum Equipment List (MEL). 'If the aircraft has 100 pieces of equipment, the rulebook says that it can function even if 30 of them have failed. For instance, an aircraft can fly safely with even one functional weather radar. This is made to operationally assist the airline. Let's go with the theory than one engine failed on the ground and the other failed after takeoff… This theory makes a little sense. But this is extremely rare. I've been researching for so many days, and it still doesn't make full sense,' he said.
Taneja then moved on to the MCAS, a system that was introduced by Boeing some years ago, and was discovered to be the cause behind two 737 Max aircraft crashing. Subsequently, the entire fleet was grounded. 'Boeing was in a close battle with Airbus, and Airbus took the lead after the launch of the A320. To compete with them, Boeing unveiled the 737 Max, and decided that pilots can safely fly the aircraft with just a two-hour iPad training. They neglected to inform pilots about the MCAS system, which automatically deployed if an aircraft's nose tilted up abnormally. But pilots didn't know, and their aircraft was automatically pointing downwards because of the MCAS. This resulted in two crashes. Perhaps a different software issue could have caused the Air India crash?'
Moving on to safety standards, he said, 'A pilot told me that aircraft are in 'a pathetic state'. Remember I told you about the MELs, and that a plane can fly with even one working radar? These snags are quite common. Every flight has snags. But they have a habit of overlooking these snags. The on-ground engineer will tell you that they are giving a temporary okay, they know and the airline knows that the snag will appear during the flight. Every snag that happens, a live report goes to the company. The company knows everything. The company is okaying these snags despite knowing about them, and leaving it to the pilot to deal with these snags during the flight.'
Read more – 'An act of sabotage is an act of terrorism against India': Gaurav Taneja says he'll 'lose his mind' if this Air India 171 theory is true
Making it clear that he wants to avoid legal trouble and that he is purely presenting theories, he continued, 'It's a sad state of affairs… 90 MELs per sector are common. They get three-page-long MEL lists; most of them have to do with issues like seats not reclining, in-flight entertainment not working, someone's remote not working… It is the pilot's job to go through that three-page MEL list and figure out what the real issues could be… It is not possible for any pilot to go through all these pages.' He cited internal politics between the departments as one of the reasons why this responsibility is handed over to pilots… It's understandable if an airline wants to hide the truth about internal issues with an aircraft, but at least they package the outside really well. If an airline can't even conceal superficial faults, imagine what's happening on the inside.'
Previously, Taneja had cited MELs as a major issue, and had praised pilots for standing up and refusing to fly allegedly unsafe aircraft in the aftermath of the crash. Several flights have been cancelled in the days since the crash. On Saturday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered immediate action against three senior Air India officials following 'serious and repeated violations,' the Hindustan Times reported.
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