The tragic plane crash in India that took the lives of 265 people is still under investigation, but a pilot who flew the Air India Boeing 787 had some insight into what went wrong.
Shortly after takeoff, the Air India Boeing 787 descended over a populated area and crashed into student housing. The plane lost all but one person on board, and a number of the students were injured or killed. This is considered one of the worst plane disasters in the past decade, and there have been plenty.
The plane had only climbed to around an altitude of 400 to 500 feet before it rapidly descended and crashed. There is footage from the disaster showing what happened. However, the black box data is still being examined, and the investigation will take months. There are many things that may have caused the Air India plane crash.
Since then, a pilot who had previously flown the Air India Boeing 787 has offered some explanation as to what may have gone wrong.
Pilot Notes A Clear Indication Of Technical Issues On The Air India Plane Crash
Captain Rakesh Rai, speaking to Indian news service NDTV, shared his thoughts on the tragedy. Looking through the footage, he points out something many of us may have missed. “Here, what you see is that the undercarriage has not been retracted at all. That raises a lot of questions.”
The reason that the undercarriage wasn’t retracted will only be made clear by black box data. However, it is suspected that it was either due to a distraction, such as engine trouble or a bird strike, or a technical issue. Either way, the drag from the landing gear still being deployed will certainly have made takeoff difficult.
“The gear-down is the biggest thing in this whole crash. The gear was down, and that has most likely created most of the problem,” the Air India 737 pilot said.
The pilot knew the captain of the crashed Air India 737 plane. He lost a friend and colleague in the disaster. Speaking to the outlet, he shared his sadness. “Losing a close friend, losing a beautiful machine, and of course, losing so many passengers is very heartbreaking.”