Bird strike may have caused Air India crash
The Air India plane crash may have been caused by a bird strike, a former pilot said.
Saurabh Bhatnagar told Indian news TV channel New Delhi Television LTD the incident appears to involve 'multiple bird hits'.
He said: 'It looks, prima facie, like a case of multiple bird hits wherein both the engines have lost power.
'The take-off was perfect and just, I believe, short of taking the gear up, the aircraft started descending, which can happen only in case the engine loses power or the aircraft stops developing lift.
'Obviously, the investigation will reveal the exact reason.'
He added that footage show the plane 'came down in a controlled fashion'.
Bird strikes are defined as a collision between a bird and an aircraft which is in flight, taking-off or landing.
A large flock of birds entering an aircraft engine can cause power loss.
Efforts to reduce the number of bird strikes include using lights on planes to make them more visible to birds, and making loud noises at airports to scare them away.
Latest Civil Aviation Authority figures show there were 1,432 incidents reported in the UK in 2022.
Professor John McDermid, of the University of York, said it was too early to know 'in any detail' what may have caused the Air India incident, but the timing suggests the issue happened 'very suddenly'.
He said: 'Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight.
'However, that said, it's surprising that the accident occurred before the aircraft had even got to 200 metres altitude.
'Pilots can abort take-off until quite late in the take-off roll, so it seems like the problem occurred very suddenly in the final part of the take-off roll, or shortly after take-off, and was sufficiently serious to be unmanageable.
'Given the levels of redundancy in systems, the fact that aircraft are designed to climb out on only one engine, etc. on initial sight this seems a very surprising accident.'
Professor McDermid added it is 'very unlikely' the plane was overweight or carrying too much fuel as 'there are careful checks on this'.
Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, said take-off is a 'critical stage of flight' as the plane is accelerating and 'any problem-solving requires a rapid response'.
Paul Williams, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading, said the weather conditions at the airport when the crash happened 'appear to have been very good'.
He added: 'It was a dry and sunny day in Ahmedabad, with temperatures near 40C.
'There was good visibility and light winds from the west.
'There was no bad weather in the vicinity.
'There is no indication at this stage that turbulence or other weather conditions were a factor in the crash.'
The accident will be investigated by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
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