The tragic plane crash of Air India flight AI 171, India’s premium and national airline carrier owned by the Tata Group bound from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, London met with a disastrous fate. The 230-passengers and 12-crew members filled airplane had an unfortunate ending, with 241 of them losing their lives and just 01 passenger surviving the fatal crash miraculously.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel during the lunch hour on June 12, minutes after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport. Air India said in a statement that 241 people on board the plane were confirmed to have died. With multiple videos floating on social media of the crash site, footages showed smoke billowing from the crash site. Parts of the plane’s body were scattered around the building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building. Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Rammohan Naidu and the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi reached the disastrous site and met the sole survivor too, to assess the situation and take cognizance of the relief activities being carried out.
According to ATC (Air Traffic Control) at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft gave a mayday call, signaling an emergency, but soon after there was no response. The Captain and First Officer did not have the time to take precautionary measures, since it was too late by the time they could take some action.
The United Kingdom was working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts around the crash and to support those affected. According to the Aviation Safety Network database, this was the first recorded crash of a Boeing 787 aircraft. The 787 has been in service for 15 long years, which is a mid- to long-haul passenger aircraft and one of the latest from Boeing in terms of development. The previous fatal plane crash in India was in 2020, which was an aircraft from Air India Express, the carrier’s low-cost arm. Twenty-one people were killed when the aircraft overshot a runway at Kozhikode International Airport in Kerala.
What could have gone wrong?
What exactly happened to Flight AI-171 between Ahmedabad and London Gatwick on Thursday afternoon will only be revealed by a detailed investigation, but the moments after take-off can be the most challenging in aviation.
Indian investigators will be joined by experts from the US and UK in the coming days, as authorities attempt to establish what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash shortly after take-off from the runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. It marks the first time a 787-8 Dreamliner has suffered a fatal crash since it entered commercial service in 2011.
The 787-8 Boeing Dreamliner was being flown by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar. The two were highly experienced pilots with more than 9000 combined flying hours. Almost immediately after take-off the cockpit gave a mayday call, but there was no response soon after.
What is a Black Box?
The search for the flight’s black box continues, which is a crucial equipment to find out what happened moments before the disaster. A black box is a small machine that records complete information about an aircraft during its flight operation. This bright orange or yellow rectangular box is crafted to withstand explosions, fire, water pressure, and high-speed crashes. This was discovered by Australian scientist David Warren and is used to uncover the root cause of a plane crash.
The black box also comprises two recorders, a cockpit voice recorder for pilot voices and cockpit sounds, and a separate flight data recorder. The black box recording of the Air India plane can reveal the underlying reason or responses of the Mayday call, or any warnings received by the aircraft, hence contributing to the discovery of the main cause of the crash.
The deadly crash happened at an altitude of just 625 feet. The black box can shed light on vital information such as parameters of the engine performance and control surface positions amid others. The investigation of the 2020 Kozhikode plane crash of the Air India Express Flight 1344 was heavily dependent on the aircraft’s black box recordings, which revealed that it was due to a pilot error.
What is Mayday?
A term that’s probably dreaded by pilots and cockpit crew, but the only word that can possibly save the airplane in a distress situation. Mayday is a globally recognized emergency word which is used to send a panic signal to the air traffic control located nearby. It is mostly used by aircraft pilots and ship captains to send an emergency signal in case the vehicle is on the verge of a destruction. It alerts the rescue authorities to provide some assistance as feasible.
As per the general establish norms, a pilot or a mariner in duress or problem situation needs to repeat the word three times in a row (Mayday, Mayday, Mayday) to trigger an emergency response protocol. With an interesting backstory, the word ‘mayday’ was coined as a distress call in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport, England. It was derived from the French word m’aider, which means “come and help me”.
The new word was incorporated for cross-channel flights in 1923. It replaced the previous distress call, which was the Morse code signal SOS.
The Mayday call is issued by the person in command of an aircraft in cases of severe emergency – which include engine failure, fire or any accident that threatens the safety and integrity of the aircraft. Subsequently, the authorities release rescue and relief teams to the accident spot. This call makes it easier for the authorities to send rescue teams and make other arrangements for potential casualties. The mayday call is the only solution a pilot has, to seek any sort of intervention during an unforeseen event.
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