New Delhi: In the aftermath of Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Faiz Ahmed Kidwai will chair a high-level virtual meeting today with officials from Air India and Air India Express.
According to reports, the meeting aims to review preliminary findings and assess airline protocols following the crash of Flight AI-171 on June 12.
The crash, which claimed at least 270 lives, occurred just 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad airport. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plunged into the BJ Medical College complex. Of the 242 passengers and crew on board, only one person survived — 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British-Indian national returning to the UK.
RAT deployment points to major malfunction
New video and audio evidence has brought the aircraft’s Ram Air Turbine (RAT) deployment into focus. A high-pitched whine, believed to be the RAT, is clearly audible in the audio, and its deployment is visible in the footage, an NDTV report mentioned. The lack of engine roar and the aircraft’s failure to maintain altitude strongly suggest that both engines may have failed, or that the aircraft experienced a total systems failure.
Initial suspicions of a bird strike have now been dismissed. Investigators found no bird carcasses on the runway or signs of bird impact in the two videos reviewed. No fire, smoke, or visible engine debris were observed.
The Boeing Dreamliner was en route from Ahmedabad to London. Its sudden descent into a densely populated area led to at least 30 additional deaths on the ground, many of whom were trainee doctors residing in the college hostel.
