Latest news with #AI855
NDTV
a day ago
- General
- NDTV
Eerie Parallels Between Ahmedabad Crash And 1978 'Emperor Ashoka' Tragedy
New Delhi: The catastrophic crash of Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, into a residential area near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday bears a startling resemblance to the plunge of Air India flight AI 855, the Emperor Ashoka, into the Arabian Sea off Mumbai nearly five decades ago. The Emperor Ashoka crash, 3 km off Mumbai, killed all 213 aboard. In both incidents, the aircraft crashed moments after departure. The 1978 Disaster On New Year's Day, 1978, Air India flight AI 855, named Emperor Ashoka, Air India's first Boeing 747, departed Santa Cruz International Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), Mumbai, bound for Dubai at 20:12 IST. The flight, carrying 190 passengers and 23 crew members, was delayed from its morning schedule due to a bird strike damaging a wing flap the previous day. Approximately one minute after takeoff from Runway 27, having been cleared to climb to 8,000 feet, the aircraft entered a gentle right turn over the Arabian Sea. The Captain's Attitude Director Indicator (ADI), the primary instrument displaying the aircraft's pitch and bank attitude relative to the horizon, malfunctioned. It remained fixed, indicating a right bank, even as the wings levelled. The Captain, 51-year-old Madan Lal Kukar, with nearly 18,000 flight hours, voiced immediate concern. The First Officer was Indu Virmani, 43, a former Indian Air Force commander with over 4,500 flight hours. Flight Engineer Alfredo Faria, 53, one of Air India's most senior engineers with 11,000 hours, observed the discrepancy between the Captain's ADI and the third, standby ADI. With the aircraft now over the Arabian Sea at night, no visual horizon reference existed. Relying on his malfunctioning ADI which still showed a right bank, Captain Kukar applied left control inputs to correct the perceived right bank. "My instruments,'' the pilot said suddenly, according to the recorder recovered from the wreckage. "Mine is also toppled," said the co-pilot. "No, but go by this, captain," Flight Engineer Faria warned. The warning went unheeded or was acted upon too late. The aircraft continued rolling left to an extreme bank angle of 108 degrees and entered a steep, approximately 35-40 degree nose-down descent from around 2,000 feet. It impacted shallow water, only 10 metres deep, approximately 3 kilometres offshore. All 213 on board died. According to a 1982 New York Times report, the official investigation concluded the probable cause was: "Irrational control wheel inputs given by the captain following complete unawareness of the attitude of the aircraft on his part after his ADI. had malfunctioned." The Ahmedabad Incident Forty-seven years later, in the afternoon of June 12, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed within seconds of takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Like AI 855, it plunged near the airport, this time into a residential area. Veteran pilot Captain Rakesh Rai who flew the same type of Dreamliner for Air India until last year, speaking exclusively to NDTV, noted the aircraft's undercarriage remained extended throughout its short, doomed flight. "His [pilot's] rate of rotation and the way he has climbed up is very normal. But something has gone wrong towards maybe an altitude of 400 to 500 feet. And the momentum has taken the aircraft to about 600 feet. At this point, the most surprising aspect of this take-off is that the undercarriage has not been retracted," he said. Captain Rai outlined several plausible scenarios. "What happens in a normal take-off is that the moment you start rotating the aircraft for take-off and the aircraft has left the ground, the instruments indicate a positive rate of climb. So, the co-pilot or the pilot monitoring gives a call, 'positive rate'. The pilot flying cross-checks that there has been a positive rate and he gives a call, 'gear up' for the landing gear to be retracted," he said. "But here, what you see is the undercarriage has not been retracted at all. So that raises a lot of questions as to what could be the reason behind the undercarriage not being retracted. We can only speculate. The actual reason behind that will come out only in the DFDR 9black box)," the veteran pilot told NDTV. At least 274 people have died as a result of the Ahmedabad crash, including 241 out of 242 on board.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
Air India disaster: Eleven planes that crashed after take-off in the past and the reasons behind
An Air India flight to London crashed into a residential neighbourhood in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on Thursday, erupting in a huge fireball and killing all on board, except one. Miraculously, one passenger ejected from the aircraft survived. The victims included medical students who were staying in a college hostel struck by the plane. Air India's flight 171 — a Boeing 787 Dreamliner — issued a mayday call and crashed immediately after take off. Data shows that the last recorded altitude of the plane was at 625 feet off the ground just immediately after take off. It flew just 2 Kms more. Notably this is the first time a 787 Dreamliner had crashed, and Boeing is gathering more details to see if there were any technical faults. Latest reports show that investigators have recovered the black box recorder and soon the exact reason for the crash will emerge. A key question is: how did the aircraft crash just minutes after takeoff? Analysis of past takeoff accidents points to several common causes: instrument or warning-system failures; collisions with debris or obstacles near the runway; in-flight structural breakups; improper use of rudder or control surfaces; skipped checklists, including flap and slat settings; and tyre damage from runway debris. Here's a lowdown: 1. Air India Flight AI 855 Date: January 1, 1978 Source: Mumbai Destination: Dubai Company: Air India Flight: Boeing 747 Flight time: One minute Persons: 190 passengers + 23 crew (all died) Cause: Flight AI 855 plunged into the sea near the airport, off the coast of Bandra, within 3 km of flying distance at night due to disorientation of the captain soon after instrument failure, killing all the 190 passengers and 23 crew members on board. The flight was headed to Dubai. According to the investigation report, the aircraft, after one minute of take-off, took a right turn after crossing the coastline and soon after turned to left and never gained level. It lost altitude and then nosedived into the sea. 2. Indian Airlines Flight 491 Date: April 26, 1993 Source: Aurangabad Destination: Hopping flight on the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Aurangabad-Bombay route Company: Indian Airlines Flight: Boeing 737 Flight time: Within minutes of take off Persons: 118 passengers + 6 crew (55 died) Cause: An aircraft carrying 118 people took off from Aurangabad but crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 55 passengers. The plane lifted off near the end of the runway but struck a lorry carrying pressed cotton bales that was passing on a highway approximately 410 feet from the runway's end. The impact—at a height of around seven feet—damaged the aircraft's left main landing gear, engine cowling, and thrust reverser. Moments later, the aircraft collided with high-tension power lines nearly three kilometres northeast of the runway and crashed into the ground. A post-impact fire engulfed the aircraft, leading to its complete destruction. 3. British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flight 783 Date: May 2, 1953 Source: Calcutta Destination: Delhi Flight: Comet jet aircraft Company: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flight time: Six minutes after takeoff Persons: 43 passengers and crew members (all died) Cause: BOAC Flight 783 crashed shortly after takeoff from Calcutta en route to Delhi, killing all 43 passengers and crew. The aircraft encountered severe rain and thunderstorms and broke apart mid-air just six minutes after takeoff while climbing to 7,500 feet. Investigators attributed the crash to structural failure caused by either extreme turbulence or pilot over-control while navigating through the storm. The accident marked the first in a series of structural break-up incidents involving the Comet aircraft. 4. American Airlines Flight 587 Date: November 12, 2001 Source: New York JFK Destination: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Company: American Airlines Flight: Airbus Time: Minutes after takeoff, before climb Persons: 251 passengers + 9 crew (all died) Cause: The accident happened because the plane's tail fin snapped off in midair. This was caused by the first officer pushing the foot pedals that move the rudder too hard and too often—creating stresses the tail wasn't built to handle. The way the rudder system works, plus some of the advanced manoeuvre training the airline used, made it easier for those excessive pedal movements to occur. 5. Northwest Airlines Flight 255 Date: August 16, 1987 Source: Detroit Destination: Phoenix Company: Northwest Airlines Flight: McDonnell Douglas MD‑82 Flight time: Seconds, crashed near runway end Persons: 149 passengers + 6 crew (one infant survived) Cause: The plane barely lifted off right at the runway's end, then wobbled left and right before its left wing hit a light pole, smashing into more poles and a car rental building, breaking apart and catching fire. it happened because the crew skipped the taxi checklist and never set the flaps and slats for takeoff, and the warning system had no power to alert them. 6. Spanair Flight 5022 Date: August 20, 2008 Origin: Madrid Destination: Canary Islands Flight: McDonnell Douglas MD‑82 Company: Spanair Flight time: Just after lift-off Fatalities: 172 onboard (18 survivors) Cause: Right after takeoff, the pilots forgot to extend the flaps and slats, so the plane stalled and they lost control. They didn't spot any warning, missed the stall signs, and even pulled back and cut power briefly, which made things worse—all because they skipped the proper flap/slat checklist. 7. Air France Flight 4590 (Concorde) Date: July 25, 2000 Origin: Paris Destination: New York Flight: Concorde supersonic jet Company: Air France Flight time: Immediately after take off Persons: 109 onboard Cause: Investigators found that a left main landing-gear tire ran over a chunk of sheet metal on the runway and immediately blew out. Debris from the tire slammed into the plane's underside and wheel well. The biggest piece didn't puncture the wing, but it caused a sudden pressure spike inside one fuel tank, blowing out panels and leading to a massive fuel leak. 8. Birgenair Flight 301 Date: February 6, 1996 Origin: Puerto Plata Destination: Frankfurt Flight: Boeing 757‑200 Company: Birgenair Flight time: Five minutes after take-off Persons: 189 onboard (all died) Cause: Right from the start the captain's speed gauge wasn't working, so he relied on the first officer's. After takeoff his gauge suddenly kicked in and showed the plane speeding up, then during climb it showed the plane was both nose-high and speeding up, triggering a 'too fast' alarm. Thinking it was wrong, they shut that warning off. Moments later the stall warning shook the controls and the autopilot and auto-throttle quit. Mixed signals on pitch, speed, and alarms left them confused, they jiggled power and angle settings, lost control, and about five minutes after takeoff the plane crashed. 9. Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 Date: February 21, 2008 Origin: Mérida Destination: Caracas Flight: Twin-turboprop aircraft Company: Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight time: Shortly after take-off, crashed approximately 7 minutes and 15 seconds (435 seconds) Persons: No survivors, All 46 onboard were killed Cause: Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot navigational error in mountainous region 10. Sriwijaya Air Flight SJ182 Jakarta Date: 9 Jan 2021 Source: Jakarta Destination: Pontianak Flight: Boeing 737-500 Company: Sriwijaya Air Flight time: Four minutes after take off Persons: 62 onboard (all died) Cause: During climb one engine stayed at power while the other cut back, so the plane pulled hard to the left. A faulty spoiler sensor hid the imbalance, and when the autopilot kicked off the plane tilted more than 45° left. Trusting the autopilot and not spotting the odd behavior, the pilots didn't catch or fix it in time. 11. Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 Date: August 31, 1988 Origin: Dallas/Fort Worth Destination: Salt Lake City Company: Delta Air Lines Flight: Boeing 727-200 Time airborne: Seconds, crashed near runway Fatalities: 14 of 108 onboard; 76 injured Cause: The NTSB report found that the aircraft could only have attempted to take off without flaps or slats extended to take-off configuration. The captain pulled back on the control column to keep the nose raised but this created turbulence over the engines and caused the compressor surges. The aircraft failed to gain speed due to drag caused by the high angle of attack. On the CVR, the flight crew said that the flaps were deployed but no lever sound was recorded, so it seemed that they failed to deploy the flaps and slats. The aircraft's take-off warning system failed to alert them to the problem as the switch had been modified to prevent activation whilst taxi-ing. Compiled by B Renuka Ramakrishna, Safa Salsabeel Z, and Niranjana VB, who are interning with The Hindu Data Team Sources: The Hindu archives, Bureau of aircraft accidents archives, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Aviation Safety Council, Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board.
