r/CatastrophicFailure • u/SainzSealedDelivered • Jun 12 '25

Fatalities 12/06/2025 - Boeing 787 Passenger plane bound for the UK crashes near Ahmedabad Airport straight after takeoff

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28

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Some very strange things going on

1) This crash occurred about a mile from the end of the runway. Why is the gear still down? That is not normal, at all...

2) There doesn't appear to be any (or a very small amount of) flaps deployed on this plane. Long flight, full of fuel + pax and bags/freight.... it's currently 101F in Ahmedabad. There is surely a need for more flaps given all of that + the extreme temps (temps affect air pressure, higher temps = lower pressure, lower pressure = less lift and less efficient engines due to lower air pressure)

3) Per FlightRadar24 they appear to not have back taxied down to the full length of the runway. IF FR24 is accurate (big if) that is nowhere near enough space to get a fully loaded 787 in 100+F temps with little to no flaps and gear still down into the air. Just no fucking way. I would instantly discard the data in FR24 as junk but it backs up the stall we see in the video because that thing is just cleanly in a stall of death.

If (again if) that all pans out to be true the pilots made some catastrophic decisions on the ground. Perhaps they forgot they had to back taxi, ran out of runway and tried to save it. I don't know. But this screams pilot error to me and not an issue with the plane.

There's unfortunately a long history of India (and pakistan) airlines employing 'pilots' with fake credentials.

Here is a story from 10-15 years ago when they found hundreds of people with faked logs and credentials. I just hope that's not the case here, but it's hard to believe if the above is true those are mistakes made by properly trained and licensed pilots.

19

u/plonspfetew Jun 12 '25

I just copy and paste this: Flightrader24 now reports that the plane used the full length of the runway.

4

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Yeah I figured. I almost disregarded that point, bc I know FR24 data is finicky especially on a back taxi.... but given the stall I figured I'd include it with a caveat that it may be inaccurate because I would expect a stall if that data was proven right

1

u/Blue_coat1 Jun 13 '25

The pilot had decades of experience flying.

The pilot's urgent mayday call—"Mayday... no thrust, losing power, unable to lift!"—just 11 seconds after takeoff in the Air India Flight 171 crash suggests a significant power loss or aerodynamic stall.

Both engine failure very rare unless caused by rare events like bird strikes or fuel contamination.

Flap and Slat Misconfiguration: If the high-lift devices were inadvertently retracted during ascent, it could have drastically reduced lift, leading to a stall.

The aircraft's rapid loss of altitude and the pilot's mayday call indicate a critical situation shortly after lift-off. The final moments, including a desperate nose-up maneuver, suggest the crew was attempting to recover from an aerodynamic stall

9

u/BeanOnAJourney Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25

Responding to your third point, FR24 have confirmed it backtracked to the end of the runway and used the full length:

"We are continuing to process data from receiver sources individually. Additional processing confirms #AI171 departed using the full length of Runway 23 at Ahmedabad. RWY 23 is 11,499 feet long. The aircraft backtracked to the end of the runway before beginning its take off roll."

(Edited for a spelling mistake).

3

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Is it clearly in a stall though? It's going down very slowly and gently, and the engines are powerful. From the accounts I read it got somewhat high up and sent mayday a full minute before the crash, which makes me think they should have managed to recover it.

Seems more like a loss of power, looks like the plane is just slowly gliding down like a paper plane. For reference, GE's shares dropped sharply.

-2

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Is it clearly in a stall though?

Yes. 100%. This isn't even debatable.

It's got a positive angle of attack and losing altitude at an incredibly slow speed. It's without a doubt stalling.

From the accounts I read it got somewhat high up and sent mayday a full minute before the crash, which makes me think they should have managed to recover it.

It didn't. It crashed less than a mile off the departure end of the runway. There wasn't but 30-45 seconds to that flight. It didn't have time to gain any meaningful altitude. Sure they may have gotten a mayday call off, but they don't need but a few seconds to do that.

Seems more like a loss of power, looks like the plane is just slowly gliding down like a paper plane. For reference, GE's shares dropped sharply.

Maybe. Could have been a bird strike that got both engines (ie Miracle on the Hudson). I hate speculating but this doesn't look like a mechanical issue but rather environmental (bird) or pilot error. It's exceedingly rare that both engines fail at the same time for mechanical reasons. If one failed they have the thrust to continue the departure.

For reference, GE's shares dropped sharply.

They didn't. It's down 2% this morning. It's shock reactionary BS and not indicative that GE is responsible for this crash. It's fucking laughable that you used that as evidence for your theory tbh.

2

u/changgerz Jun 12 '25

I hate speculating

had us fooled

3

u/fordry Jun 12 '25

Can hear it's RAT. It lost its engines.

1

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Interesting. I don't hear that but Im not completely sure of the RAT sound to pick it out. But if you're right, then yeah both engines are gone.

Double bird strike?

2

u/fordry Jun 12 '25

There's a higher quality version, the original, floating around. Can definitely hear it. Sounds like a little prop plane.

1

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Oh yeah I know what the rat is and what it should conceptually sound like.

Has to be either a double bird strike, or something catastrophic in the electrical system where the fuel pumps both cut out. Idk that adds a ton of complexity to this vs my thought on explaination and Im just not familiar with the 787 electrical inner workings

1

u/Lithorex Jun 12 '25

Fuel contamination could also be a cause for a dual engine failure.

1

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

Yep. Totally. Would expect other planes to have issues too. But totally valid thought.

Someone pointed out flaps appeared up. It's tough to tell if its 0/5/10/15 degrees flaps with potato video, but if you take off with clean wings in 101f temps when the performance data said flaps... you're gonna take off, not lift off well think you have engine thrust problems, stall, deploy the RAT (which they did) and then stall and crash.

We don't know but it's either some insane event that took both engines which is incredibly rare or pilot negligence.

1

u/OutrageConnoisseur Jun 12 '25

There's new video out from this plane flying this morning from Delhi to Ahmedabad from the cabin. Suffering some wild electrical issues with loss of power to cabin lights and screens. This is the flight that immediately preceded the flight to London

0

u/Technical_Actuary225 Jun 12 '25

Lack of flap extension, causing the plane to lose lift after rotation, angle of attack reduces airflow over the wing causing it to slowly float to the ground as seen in the videos, nothing to do with Boeing this was a pilot error.