Preliminary Report --Part 2

 Hundreds of flights have landed safely at their destination since the JUNE 12 Air India accident in Ahmedabad. The complexity involved in designing and maintaining an aircraft with thousands of parts seems mind boggling.

There have been some close calls as well, as portrayed in the news almost daily in the USA, since that accident! The media within the US seems too eager to blame the pilots for the AI 171 accident but the pilots in India are unhappy about that. Not so long ago the 'experts' were saying that the MAYDAY call from the pilot included the phrase‘NO THRUST’ even though the Preliminary report does not include that phrase. Also almost all these news people were also reporting that one of the pilots of the AI 171 flight cutoff the two switches that control the fuel flow to the two engines but they conveniently forget to mention that a few seconds later the two switches were reset to RUN position. Does this sound like actions of a pilot trying to commit suicide?

Yet the confusion will remain until the voice transcripts are released and the investigators come to a firm conclusion. Hopefully the question of why the pilot switched off the fuel almost immediately after liftoff will be answered in the final report. Was this part of an emergency protocol listed in the plane’s manual ? I believe that the plane had not gained enough altitude to give the engines enough seconds to recover. 

The Preliminary Report AIR INDIA flight 171

 

The media has been analyzing the several potential causes of twin engine failures on AIR INDIA flight AI 171 on JUNE 12 2025. However, when the AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BUREAU (AAIB) preliminary report was released recently, we find that the reason was simply that the fuel release switch of each engine had transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position and then back to RUN position a few seconds later! The only way they could have found this information is by looking at the data of each event recorded on the Flight Data Recorder. Two FDRs were recovered from the site of the accident but only one was usable.

I managed to download a copy of the report. It mentions that the debris, including major parts of the broken plane, were spread in an area 1000 feet long and 400 feet wide. Different parts of the plane fell at different locations within this area which includes trees and five buildings. The report then mentions where each of the important parts were found. It is obvious that the plane did not fall at one place but kept moving forward.

After that, the report lists the flying experience of each pilot including how much they had flown in the last few months. The recent history of the plane is described as well including its maintenance records and the parts replaced in recent years.

After that, there is a second by second description of the flight from the time the pilots entered the cockpit till the time the plane crashed. One important point I noticed is that the co-pilot  was flying the plane while the captain was monitoring! 

Conclusions:

There are too many abbreviations in the report for even a technical layman to comprehend. A seasoned aircraft professional will get more information from the report than me.

 The pilots were aware that the fuel switches have been turned off thus cutting off the fuel to the engines. There is a conversation between the two pilots regarding this on the voice recorder as follows:

Pilot 1: Why did you cutoff?

Pilot 2: I did not do so!

The engine fuel switches transitioned to cutoff 3 seconds after takeoff.

The pilots turned the two fuel switches  back to RUN position 10 seconds after the switches had transitioned to cutoff but the engines could not recover in time to avoid the crash.

The emergency RAT got deployed immediately after liftoff and was producing hydraulic power less then 5 seconds after fuel switchess cutoff. This might indicate engine problems immediately at liftoff according to some experts.

Note: The report does not mention the names of any of the pilots. 

The Last Few Seconds.. Part 4

[This is a fictional account of two young kids, a brother and a sister, who were on the AIR INDIA flight AI 171 on JUNE 12 , 2025 - RAVINDRA LOOMBA]

Both, he and his sister were going to London to settle there with their parents. He was six and she had just turned eight.

The young boy and his sister talked excitedly, repeatedly about the new life they were going to experience; the many privileges they were going to enjoy in London. The two felt proud that their mom was a doctor. They were a little sad that they were leaving behind their friends at school and in the neighborhood. He promised them that he will be back soon to visit his cousins and grandparents who repeatedly reminded him not to forget them with tears in their eyes. They would miss seeing him and his sister grow up in Ahmedabad. How could they forget anything? Mom was there to feed them dhokla and jalebi …. and there were many Indians in London to make them feel at home!

It was the afternoon of June 12, the fateful day had arrived.He had woken up early and showered and dressed himself on that day without getting scolded by his dad. The neighbors who knew them stood outside their houses waving them goodbye when the taxi picked them up for the airport.

After checking into the airport and going through the formalities, the two - brother and sister - looked through the glass walls at planes taking off and landing. It was magical. Their parents meanwhile made the last few phone calls while waiting for the lady at the counter to announce the opening of the skyway for boarding. They boarded the plane half an hour before departure. The young boy looked around the cabin “ Wow, this was just like a movie theater with such plush seats”. He invited his sister to sit next to him so they could be part of the selfies that their mom was taking from  her seat near the window. He noticed a crowd of people rushing past with their luggage and pretty ladies in blue saris guiding them along, helping them put their carry ons in the bins above.

Then a man's voice came over the intercom ‘Good afternoon , ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain Sabharwal with first officer Kunder. Please fasten your seat belts for takeoff. You may unfasten these once the indicator light goes off. This is a no smoking flight. This flight to London will take approximately nine hours.’ 

The plane started taxing for takeoff….

The Last Few Seconds - Part 3

 Disclaimer: The information below is based upon my simplified interpretation of Airlines disaster videos available on YouTube RL.

Singapore Airlines Video 

          

It was a dark and rainy night with very low visibility, when a Singapore Airlines plane went through the maze at a airport in Taiwan to reach the runway which was its take-off point. Actually there were two parallel runways next to each other and one was being repaired; there were cranes and other construction equipment sitting in the middle of one runway. The pilots of the plane gradually increased their speed to effect the take off. It was too late when they spotted the construction equipment ; the plane crashed into it causing the plane to break apart killing 64 occupants. The pilots had taken the wrong runway!! A warning sign or a blockage at the beginning of that runway where construction was being done could have saved all the lives !! Human error or fate ? That was the first plane accident in the spotless history of Singapore Airlines.

60 Minutes Video 

An Alaska Airlines plane lost part of its ‘wall’ (panel), adjacent to where the passengers were seated, mid-flight, several thousand feet up in the air. The flight landed safely a couple of hours later. The investigators found that four rivets that are used to bolt the panel were missing ! The news program 60 minutes did a special after this accident to highlight  the occasional compromises made in manufacturing.

A Japan Airlines (2013) Dreamliner  flight made an emergency landing because of smoke in the cockpit. Investigators found that the lithium iron batteries had a ‘meltdown’. If you had a Dell or HP laptop several years back these had a similar problem with overheating due to lithium iron batteries! 

The pilot of an Emirates flight entered the wrong weight of the plane while configuring the takeoff. Therefore the software suggested the wrong wing flaps settings based on this reduced weight. The tail half of the plane refused to lift causing the tail to screech against the runway creating sparks as the plane raced for takeoff ! 

Another plane’s rudder got stuck in one position causing the plane to tilt in one direction. The pilot and his first officer had to struggle with all their might to hold the plane horizontal. They made an emergency landing with the plane tilted in one direction without losing any life. The Investigators found that the cap of the hydraulic system that controlled the movement of the rudder was broken causing the hydraulic fluid to leak and therefore no amount of pressure from the pilot could move the rudder!  A small part controlled the lives of the occupants of that plane.

A small L shaped sensor  at the front of another Boeing plane below the cockpit was covered with ice when flying through cold weather. It sent erroneous information to the software called MCAS that controls the angle at which the plane flies. It calculated the angle higher than at which the plane was flying.Therefore the plane did a nosedive disregarding the input of the pilot. Design oversight and too much automation obviously!! 

The last few seconds --Part 2

As I watched the news of the Air India plane crash on June 12th, I noticed a number of videos appear on YouTube by 'experts' who mentioned technical 

 terms like RAT ,APU, FADEC etc related to the DREAMLINER. To understand these I consulted a few AI apps which gave adequate information about the parts that power the plane in an emergency. Then came videos about the reenactment of various accidents of older Boeing planes like 747 or 737 MAX using actors and animation.Some are as interesting as watching a movie.  This broadened my perspective - this was not just a AIR INDIA problem but a global problem. Almost every other airline that I have heard of has had a disaster - Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific , Emirates, Alaska Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and many more!

The DREAMLINER is more sophisticated than it's predecessors, it has more smart hardware and software like FADEC. However, as I watched these accidents it became clear to me that the lowest common denominators are the quality of batteries, the nuts and bolts, the way the cabin parts were joined together. Besides the intelligence built into the FADEC these small parts determine whether you reach your destination safely. Any oversight or compromise means a loss of hundreds of lives!!

I also learnt that the emergency backup APU takes 90 secs to power up while the A171 pilot had only about 15 seconds because of low altitude; that the plane can glide for couple of miles on its own but there are only buildings surrounding the Ahmedabad airport and the air pressure might not have been enough to land in a clearing!

I have taken the liberty of including a video by a young vlogger from INDIA that explains everything in simple terms and it is more comprehensive specific to the AIR INDIA crash. It is in HINDI with ENGLISH subtitles.

RAVINDRA LOOMBA 

The Last Few Seconds...

 If you have watched the video of Air India flight 171 taking off from Ahmedabad, India and then crashing into a building less than a minute later, you will notice that the plane and it's wings have been turned white in the video? Why? The plane had other colors on it. This video was taken by a young man from the roof of his house. 

(It reminded me of a pure white crane that had shown up on the road just below the balcony of my apartment at around 4.30 a.m. a few days earlier. The date, however, says April 24th on the file info of the pictures. I tried to take pics of the crane but these are grainy. A SUV loaded with people slowed down as it approached the crane. I was surprised to see the crane very suddenly spread it’s wings wide open and fly away. The wings made the crane look so big and wide; much bigger than it looked while standing. It flew low, parallel to the road towards the left.)

The panel on my television started misbehaving about a week back. If I use the volume button it changes the video input option instead of the volume.  Almost every button on the panel is doing what it is not supposed to do. The volume is now stuck at high. I found a work around by connecting a Bluetooth headphones to the TV so only I can hear the sound.)

Back to the plane crash….there are a few videos made by people inside the plane with their cell phones - on YouTube. Some are pleasant- selfies of kids ; one passenger was filming the outside from the window of the plane when all of a sudden the screen turns red and you can see fire and hear a loud thud. There are saddening videos of charred remains of a child inside a wooden box …There are other depressing videos but it is difficult to know whether all of these are authentic. 

Interstellar revisited

 Towards the end of the movie INTERSTELLAR, while recovering in a hospital on Cooper Station, Cooper walks over to the window and sees a curved habitat with houses and children playing baseball. That was very confusing for me - had the entire town moved to space with Cooper station or is Cooper able to see his home town on earth using special parabolic mirrors ?

The first guess is correct!! A scientist named O’Neill came up with the idea of two cylinders 20 miles long and 5 miles in diameter each, that could house an entire town. Artificial Gravity is produced by centrifugal force caused by rotation of the cylinders at a fixed speed similar to the rotation of earth about its axis. It is a theoretical idea only but because the movie is set in the future, we have to assume that the generation from the time of Cooper managed to make it practical/real..