‘Bird strike a possible cause'
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 Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
M'sian woman spends RM1.8k on ex-boyfriend's birthday, only to get nothing in return
CHOOSING a partner who reciprocates effort is essential in building a healthy, balanced relationship. Unfortunately, one woman learned this the hard way after investing emotionally and financially in her ex-boyfriend—only to be met with indifference. In a Threads post, she said that in the early stages of her relationship with her former boyfriend — who had been a widower for 10 years — she eagerly looked forward to celebrating his birthday, especially after he told her that no one had celebrated it in years. According to the post, the woman claimed she spent RM1,800 on his birthday celebration. However, when her own birthday came around, she didn't even receive a birthday wish. Initially, she thought it was strange and assumed he was planning a surprise. She waited for three weeks, but he gave no indication of remembering or celebrating her birthday. 'My birthday passed without any celebration. I only had a piece of roti canai and drank some teh tarik—and not even with the person I thought would be my future husband,' she said. As the relationship progressed, tensions rose after the couple argued over the lack of birthday acknowledgement. Her ex claimed he had simply forgotten, which made her realise she could not live with such a calculative partner—especially when it came to food. She explained that she was usually the one who paid whenever they dined at more expensive places she had suggested. 'Every time we went out to eat, he would choose the place. Honestly, I was always afraid to order too much, even if we were just eating at a mamak stall. He would always order for me, and I'd just eat whatever he chose. I didn't mind, because I knew how stingy he was—especially with food, let alone anything else,' she added. The relationship lasted for over a year. During that time, she said she had bought him many gifts, yet the only thing she ever received from him was a single packet of Thai tea. Her story struck a chord with many online, with users expressing sympathy for her situation and applauding her for walking away from an unbalanced relationship. 'If this stingy man had become your husband, you would have suffered. Thank goodness you realised sooner,' one user commented.
The Star
27-07-2025
- The Star
Jeju Air jet still had a working engine when it crashed, investigation update says
SEOUL (Reuters) -A Jeju Air plane that crashed in December during an emergency landing after a bird strike could have kept flying on the damaged engine that was still working after pilots shut down the other one, according to an update from South Korean investigators. The Boeing 737-800 instead belly-landed at Muan airport without its landing gear down, overshot the runway and erupted into a fireball after slamminginto an embankment, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. Investigators have not yet produced a final report into the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil, but information about the plane's two engines has begun to emerge. According to a July 19 update prepared by investigators and seen by Reuters but not publicly released following complaints from victims' family members, the left engine sustained less damage than the right following a bird strike, but the left engine was shut down 19 seconds after the bird strike. The right engine experienced a "surge" and emitted flames and black smoke, but investigators said it "was confirmed to be generating output sufficient for flight," in the five-page update, which included post-crash photos of both engines. No reason for the crew's actions was given and the probe is expected to last months as investigators reconstruct the plane's technical state and the picture understood by its pilots. Experts say most air accidents are caused by multiple factors and caution against putting too much weight on incomplete evidence. MORE QUESTIONS So far, public attention has focused on the possibility that the crew may have shut down the less-damaged engine, rekindling memories of a 1989 Boeing 737-400 crash in Kegworth, England, where pilots shut down a non-damaged engine by mistake. The disaster led to multiple changes in regulations including improvements in crew communication and emergency procedures. A source told Reuters on Monday that the South Korea-led probe had "clear evidence" that pilots had shut off the less-damaged left engine after the bird strike, citing the cockpit voice recorder, computer data and a switch found in the wreckage. But the latest update on the crash also raises the possibility that even the more heavily damaged engine that was still running could have kept the plane aloft for longer. It did not say what level of performance the operating engine still had, nor what extra options that might have given to the plane's emergency-focused crew before the jet doubled back and landed in the opposite direction of the runway from its initial plan with its landing gear up. Both engines contained bird strike damage and both experienced engine vibrations after the strike. The right engine showed significant internal damage, the Korean-language update from South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) said, but it did not describe the damage found in the left engine. The update did not say how the left engine was operating nor the state of systems connected to either engine, said former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith when shown the document translated by Reuters. It contains some new facts but omits far more,resulting in a "cryptic" document, he said. ARAIB, which plans to issue a final report next June, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Safety experts say it is common for early reports to contain sparse facts and limited analysis while investigations continue. A preliminary report released in January said feathers and blood stains from ducks were found in both engines. The engines - made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE and France's Safran - were examined in May and no defects or fault datawere found beyond the bird and crash damage, the report said. Families of those who died in the disaster were briefed on the engine findings but asked investigators not to release the July 19 report, saying that it appeared to apportion blame to the pilots without exploring other factors. The report was withheld but Reuters and South Korean media obtained and GE referred questions about the crash to ARAIB. Safran did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jeju Air has previously said it is cooperating with ARAIB and is awaiting publication of the investigation. Under global aviation rules, civil air investigations aim to discover crash causes without assigning blame or liability. The Jeju Air pilots' union said ARAIB was "misleading the public" by suggesting there was no problem with the left engine given that bird remains were found in both. A source who attended the briefing told Reuters that investigators told family members the left engine also experienced a disruptive "surge," citing black box data. The pilot union and representatives of bereaved families have asked that evidence be released to support any findings. Relatives say the investigation also needs to focus on the embankment containing navigation equipment, which safety experts have said likely contributed to the high death toll. Global aviation standards call for any navigation equipment in line with runways to be installed on structures that easily give way in case of impact with an aircraft. South Korea's transport ministry has identified seven domestic airports, including Muan, with structures made of concrete or steel, rather than materials that break apart on impact and has said it will improve them. Designs for the new structures are in progress, a ministry official told Reuters last week. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Editing by Jamie Freed)
New Straits Times
23-07-2025
- New Straits Times
25 children among 27 killed in Bangladesh Air Force jet crash
DHAKA: At least 25 children were among the 27 dead pulled from scorched buildings after a Bangladesh Air Force jet on a training mission crashed into a college and school campus here, officials said yesterday. Around 88 other people were being treated in hospital. The F-7 BGI aircraft crashed soon after it took off at 1.06pm on Monday from the airbase in Kurmitola, here, on a routine training mission. The military said the plane experienced a mechanical failure. Visuals showed rescue workers scouring the charred buildings for debris as distressed family members surrounded the site. Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser on health, said a teacher and the jet pilot were also among the dead. The government announced a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast and special prayers at all places of worship. The jet is the most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011, and deliveries were completed by 2013. The incident comes as neighbour India is still grappling with the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade after an Air India plane crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad last month, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground. — REUTERS
