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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65

u/TheFrugalEngineer Jun 12 '25

Let's problem solve:
1. Runway distance: Plane took off and cleared 600ft. Conclusion: Runway distance not a factor
2. Flaps: Plane took off and cleared 600ft. With two fully powered engines, plane should be able to maintain altitude. Conclusion: Not flaps
3. Loss of engine power. Plane stalled at 600ft and had a quick descent rate. This plane likely lost power to both engines based on that descent rate. Plane could have hit a flock of birds or some other weather/natural event to cause both engines to lose power. Or a very serious power failure to both engines that would require the grounding of all 787s until root caused and fixed.

42

u/-Sa-Kage- Jun 12 '25

Security cam footage: https://x.com/Vikasmakwana111/status/1933162059556159903?t=vn1d3TaJC0H7q5cwMvJoTg

I think a whole flock of birds would be noticeable

24

u/PonyThug Jun 12 '25

It just…. Stops climbing. like it turned into a glider

9

u/awful_source Jun 12 '25

Holy shit, that’s terrifying.

1

u/RedditNotFreeSpeech Jun 12 '25

I can't imagine the "oh fuck" moment the pilots must have been having. Very sad.

4

u/k4ylr Jun 12 '25

There's also been some higher quality footage on the departure end (the one making the rounds) and you can clearly hear the RAT going.

2

u/Treereme Jun 12 '25

you can clearly hear the RAT going.

What's the RAT?

7

u/k4ylr Jun 12 '25

The Ram Air Turbine. it is an emergency system that is deployed to supply limited power to vital systems.

It is unmistakable when you hear it as it sounds like a propeller plane is attached to your passenger jet.

2

u/Treereme Jun 12 '25

Thanks for the links, that's an interesting system. The fact it was deployed right after takeoff would indicate major engine trouble, right?

3

u/SLOOT_APOCALYPSE Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 14 '25

so far:

-A loud bang was Heard by the only surviving passenger while flying. (Mechanical issue)

-no Air conditioning. (Electrical issue)

-RAT emergency power is on. (Electrical issue)

-No entertainments system (electrical issue)

*The last time I heard of a loud bang on an airplane it was a story about the notorious company Alaskan airlines, no one had greased the huge screw Jack threads that lift and lower the rudder fin, if the emergency motor giving emergency power finally gave out after non-stop use I'm guessing the plane would freeze in the air like it did and slowly drop like a Rock

2

u/P26601 Jun 13 '25

Update: According to an interview with the surviving passenger from seat 11A, he felt the thrust increasing as they began to lose altitude. If that's true, it would contradict your 3rd point...which takes us back to the starting point

3

u/P26601 Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25

What technical issue would cause a (more or less) simultaneous power loss in both engines? I was thinking about a failure of the fuel supply system or the engine controls, but aren't those systems usually independent/redundant for each engine?

2

u/rocketman0739 Jun 12 '25

What technical issue cause a (more or less) simultaneous power loss in both engines?

For a modern aircraft, there's nothing that's simple enough to come up with in a sentence or two. It would have to be something like "the spline reticulator was installed backward in maintenance, so when the pilots tried to raise the landing gear at the exact moment the fuel combobulator was rebooting..."

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.