Posts by user "krismiler" [Posts: 10 Total up-votes: 0 Pages: 1]

Exactly what I was thinking, landing gear still down at a height it would normally be retracted and the wing clean before normal acceleration altitude suggests just that. F/O with 1100 hours total time might make a mistake like that, although no one is immune.

Airbus FBW will give you alpha lock where the slats won't retract if the AoA is too high or the airspeed too low.

Here's another YouTube presentation.

Similar to the Emirates crash following the attempted go around in DXB, momentum can be converted into altitude until speed runs out and gravity takes over.

On the Airbus, if we take off in anything other than 1+F, I'm watching the F/Os left hand very carefully when I call for flap retraction.

Survivor and eye witness recollections can be very unreliable and need to be treated with caution. There is easy access to the flight data recorders so hopefully it won't be too long before a preliminary report is out. Boeing must be praying for the cause to be pilot error, after the way in which the company handled the crashes of the B737 MAX, the FAA won't be impressed with a video of the CEO flying onboard and telling everyone how safe the aircraft is. Anything aircraft related and you can guarantee a worldwide grounding of the type, they won't be flying while Boeing works on a software fix.

Gear possibly not selected up due to startle effect after a major event.

Bird strike unlikely to knock out both engines unless there is a flock of them, you might get a single bird into one engine but the odds of two birds each hitting separate engines are pretty long.

Aircraft often yaw slightly after takeoff, particularly with a crosswind which may be stronger in the air than on the ground.

Air India have had issues with pilot training and standards, reports not too long ago of Indian flight schools selling logbook hours which didn't involve any time in an aircraft.

Numerous reports of cabin maintenance issues with Air India, if they can't fix the seats and IFE possibly they can't fix other things.

These days, high resolution cameras aren't prohibitively expensive and installing a few at airports would be better than mobile phone footage.

Wouldn't an incorrect altitude setting pitch the nose downwards and keep power on for the aircraft to accelerate ?

Boeing philosophy is for the pilot to have ultimate control of the aircraft, Airbus try to protect the aircraft from pilot error. Inadvertent flap retraction on an Airbus will result in the slats remaining out and TOGA, which whilst not a guarantee, has saved a few necks.

Possible issue with the particular type of engines fitted to that aircraft, even worse would be an aircraft issue which would have had the same result regardless of the engine manufacturer.

The B787 has enough OEBs on it to fill up a small binder if printed out, some of which state that the issue is known about and the company is working on it.

Hopefully, given the time that the aircraft has been in service, it won't be a systemic problem suddenly coming to light in the way MCAS did on the B737 MAX relatively soon after EIS.

Does the B787 have auto flap retract ? Possibly a fault in the system could cause the flaps to retract during the take off run which would not give a configuration warning at the start if they were set correctly. Aircraft uses more runway than normal which it seems to have done, crew become aware of the problem near rotation and miss retracting the landing gear while trying to work out what's going on.

It's starting to look more like a massive electrical or computer issue which resulted in both engines failing, the landing gear may have been left down longer than normal due to startle effect.

It could be maintenance related or a latent condition in the B787 which only occurred due to the required factors all being present on this occasion i.e. the holes in the Swiss cheese all lined up.

Boeing and Air India will be wanting to blame each other, hopefully having the UK AAIB involved will provide a balance as they don't have a dog in the fight.

If this turns out to be another MCAS, it will be difficult for Boeing to continue in it's present form. The B787 has been beset with problems since its introduction, the B777X has had numerous issues during development and the B737 is overdue for replacement. Airlines are starting to drop Boeing due to quality, safety and delivery issues. China is on the rise and if the C919 proves itself, it might be the main alternative to the A320.

Basically, the preliminary report has narrowed down the cause of the disaster and discounted a few earlier theories such as flaps up instead of gear up, but there are a lot of questions still to be answered. We need to know; who, how and why.

The switches could have been set to cut off in error even though this was denied on the CVR. However anyone with experience in this part of the world knows that owning up to mistakes isn't a common practice.

I'd rule out a suicide attempt because if the pilot doing it had moved to switches to cut off and the other pilot had put them back on, a hard push forward on the control column at that height would have settled the matter.

I'm not yet convinced that the aircraft isn't responsible due to a technical fault or improper maintenance.

Muscle memory and performing an action at the wrong time is quite possible. Back when I was flying piston twins and had been on the same type for over a year, I was sitting in the cockpit starting up and my hands had got ahead of my brain. They were doing an action in the start sequence ahead of what I was thinking about at the time. Mental note to self to make sure that hands and brain were in sequence from then on.

Having now been on the same type for nearly 20 years, I could do the PM after landing flows with zero thought because I've done them thousands of times but deliberately slow myself down and read the labels on the controls and switches before actioning them. It's a bit like tying your shoelaces.

If it was a suicide attempt, wouldn't the pilot responsible wait until the aircraft had got a bit higher before operating the fuel switches and follow it up with full forward stick ? At low level the outcome wouldn't have been in any doubt. Nose down would be instinctive to someone who wanted to crash and with the arms locked in the extended position it would be very difficult for the other pilot to override him.