B787 Air India 171 VT-ANB crash in Ahmedabad 12 June 2025-preliminary report

 

The last six months or so have seen some dreadful aviation accidents/crashes and the Air India Dreamliner/787 crash on 12 June 2025 just after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India has to be one of the most notorious/awful.  There has been much discussion/speculation on various online forums and among the plethora of youtube pilot 'experts'. There are the usual calls for all discussion/speculation to be clamped down on - once the self-appointed 'experts' have had their 'say' of course. In this instance the 'conclusions' are not pleasant reading for the airliner crew/pilot fraternity as once again we find ourselves facing a situation where the responsibility for the deaths of 240 or so hapless passengers may have to be placed firmly at their door. Even despite the reluctance of the official interim report to call a spade a spade. This crash is among the worst of the last ten years or so - and yet we still have to wait another 12 months or so for the 'official' verdict. Those poor families..

..The Air India B787 interim accident report focuses on the operation - apparently shortly after takeoff - of the (mechanical) fuel cut off switches. That they were operated - mechanically and not as the result of some glitch or accidental movement caused by vibration - is apparently confirmed by the CVR (voice recorder) and the time stamp details. But there must have been more said after the 'why did you operate the cut off' and the response 'I did not do so' - in fact why even say it out loud? Put them back on to 'Run' immediately rather than wait ten seconds. (no it wasn't just a 'couple of seconds' as some have said). Nor does the report state what the engines were doing prior to these switches being flipped off and on - was the non-flying pilot attempting to restart the engines after a loss ofpower? 

Below; extract from the incident report showing the fuel cut off switches and the throttle control module recovered from the crashed airliner.

 As former B777 captain Dan Gryder shows in his 'Probable Cause' video (below) it is the action of just 4 seconds to switch both fuel cut off switches back into the run position. Of course, still climbing out, the aircraft was too low to recover, as probably the (culpable?) pilot intended. There is no further comment published in the interim report. A former air investigator commented on the BBC;

" ..it is very disappointing to read a report which provides a few salient details but leaves more questions unanswered.."

 The pilot flying the take off (both hands on yoke) is not likely to have operated the switches but would he have noticed the other pilot (aircraft captain, hand perhaps covering the throttles as is normal practise) doing this manual action twice in quick succession? Would he not have exclaimed ' what are you doing?!' He may have been too stunned/numb to immediately react. There's no clue from the abridged (?) transcript from the CVR of the tone and inflection of the crew's words. In the shock of the moment did the crew use their native tongue, and was at least some of what they said lost in translation? Likewise the response, "I didn't do so." Was this indignant? Defensive? Accusatory?

As the BBC commentator put it, " the very worst reports are those designed to be read 'between the lines'... " - intimating that this is what we have here.

While Dan Gryder speculates his theory (see video below) it has been reported by Indian media that the investigation is NOT focussing on a human action causing the fuel switches to appear in the CUTOFF position, but on a system failure. Service Bulletins by Boeing issued in year 2018 recommending to upgrade the fuel switches to locked versions to prevent inadvertent flip of the switches, as well as the FAA/GE issued Service Bulletin FAA-2021-0273-0013 Attachment 2 relating to loss of control issue (also see above) were NOT implemented by Air India. The stated MN4 computer with faulty soldering, that might weaken and lose contact due to the thermal stress after a number of cycles, interprets data and commands fuel metering valves - with the lost contact attaching the MN4 processor to the EEC intermittent electrical contact, loss of signal processing and engine control faults can occur. The SB writes under conditions for the SB: "An LOTC (Loss Of Thrust Control) event has occurred due to an EEC MN4 microprocessor solder ball failure." According to discussions in the industry it may be possible with the number of cycles VT-ANB had already completed, the solder balls were weakened sufficiently to detach the MN4 from the EEC momentarily due to loads during the takeoff rotation leading to the loss of control of thrust and shut down of the engines.  

 Maybe there will be more in the official accident report to be published in around 12 months time. In the mean time all we can do is 'speculate' as the authorities leave an information 'vacuum'. Incidentally 'Mentour Pilot' has recently highlighted a Chinese air crash caused by a murder/suicide pilot where the official report will not/has not been published for reasons of 'social cohesion'.

In the short 8-minute video below Dan Gryder offers his analysis. Just a single click on the red button enables you to watch this short video here.

 

"Jeju Air Flight 2216 came in like a glider.." - B737-800 crash Muan airport South Korea

 

.. a shocking tragedy, 179 killed while on the ground. Most reports focusing on the 'concrete' ILS transponder 'wall' off the end of the runway, presumably because reporters know something about brick walls - they certainly know little about the B737. If I hear another Sky News reporter say that the 'landing gear' was not working....

There's only one logical explanation for that B737 to come in and attempt a 'crash' landing in the configuration that it did. The airliner came in like a glider and put down on its belly ..because it was glider. The landing gear on the B737 does not fail - it can be deployed manually by pulling on the three long cables behind the seats in the cockpit. The glider 'theory' obviously presumes that neither engine was developing full thrust; after all the B737 can operate reasonably comfortably on one engine and redundancy is such that one engine can power most nearly all of the systems. Coming in as a glider though immediately poses other problems, horribly evident on watching the video footage - the ground effect meant that the aircraft 'floated' along the runway ..and put down far too long. With the airliner flying like a glider, the landing gear and flaps could not be deployed - minimal drag configuration was perhaps the only way the crew could stand a chance of getting back to the runway.  The other possibility, as mentioned by Juan Brown on his Blancolerio channel - given the elapse of only 7 minutes from birds strike to touch-down - is that the crew didn't have time to run through any check list and failed to deploy the gear. That doesn't bear thinking about. And from what the commentator below says (Max Afterburner channel) in this 'NO-TIME' scenario, the crew didn't/wouldn't/couldn't run through their emergency check-list that includes gear down where a decision has to be taken immediately. I used to hate check-lists. Although they exist and you could consult them, in a real emergency you simply don't have the time to consult them - you need to know them! (all 100 pages of the emergency procedures section!) The crew fought to keep the machine airborne for as long as possible, that is the only explanation that fits what we have seen. With the tragic consequences we have all witnessed. A single click to view the video here..

Getty Images slide-show courtesy of Getty Images for non-commercial websites

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Caledonian 707 and Transeuropa Caravelle at Gatwick, Tridents at LHR

Robert Robinson photos

 " ...A late 60's early 70's picture at Gatwick showing a Caledonian 707 and Transeuropa Caravelle with a Connie and Dak in the background. Provides a bit of a feel for what it was like on the terrace in those days..."

"....when Tridents, VC-10's, DC-9's and the like were the norm. Heathrow in the 80's. Here 2 Tridents wait their turn to erupt into noisy, dirty yet beautiful flying machines........."

From the Airshows Past FB page here

Sabca-Fokker F.VIIb #daily Ebay photo find # 34

Photograph of Sabca-Fokker F.VIIb / 3M - VH-USU - Southern Cross c.1936. Click to view large

Sabca-Fokker F.VIIb / 3M - OO-AIF - Sabena c.1928.  Service Photographique de la Sabena stamp on the back and John Stroud and Aviation Picture Library stickers.

currently on offer here

"Tex" Johnston barrel rolls the B707 Dash 80 prototype - Jet age - Recommended Aviation books #29

Bill Allen; "what did you think you were doing ?!!"
Tex Johnston; "selling airplanes!"

As part of the Dash 80s demonstration program, Bill Allen invited representatives of the Aircraft Industries Association and International Air Transport Association to the Seattle's 1955 Seafair and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington on August 6, 1955. The Dash-80 was scheduled to perform a simple flyover, but Boeing test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston instead performed a barrel roll to show off the jet airliner. The next day, Allen summoned Johnston to his office and told him not to perform such a maneuver again, Johnston's explanations that this was a safe 1G manoeuvre assertion that doing so was completely safe. Boeing Chief Test Pilot John Cashman stated that just before he piloted the maiden flight of the Boeing 777 on June 12, 1994, his last instructions from then Boeing President Phil Condit were "No rolls"
A single click to view here

 




 Review of the 'Jet Age' by William Holmes


 .. The central narrative about the competition between Britain and America is clear from the subtitle, "The Comet, the 707 and The Race to Shrink the World." The British were the first to test a commercial airliner, the de Havilland Comet, in 1949. British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC) assigned the new aircraft to its Empire Service, and it began carrying paying passengers on regularly scheduled flights in May 1952. The American airline industry was satisfied with big, noisy, turbulent, uncomfortable propeller-driven aircraft--Boeing was the only manufacturer willing to bet the company on jet air travel, and its Dash 80 (the prototype of the famous 707) was years behind the Comet. The book is first and foremost about the race between de Havilland and Boeing, told from the perspective of national pride. From there, the story branches out in myriad directions. A second narrative summarizes the life and achievements of Geoffrey de Havilland, who endured personal tragedy (including the deaths of two of his three sons in company aircraft) to lead Britain into the jet age. The Americans in the story include Bill Boeing, who founded the eponymous company but left the airline industry in disgust in 1934 when the Roosevelt Adminstration broke his company into an aircraft manufacturer (Boeing Company), an airline (Boeing Air Transport, now United Airlines), and an engine manufacturer (today's United Technologies); Bill Allen, who bet the company on the 707 and later on the even larger 747; Howard Hughes (TWA), Eddie Rickenbacker (Eastern), and Juan Trippe (Pan Am), the leaders of the airlines who would decide whether the 707, the Douglas DC-8, or the Comet won the race to become the dominant aircraft of the jet age; and Tex Johnston, the Boeing test pilot and salesman-in-chief who famously barrel-rolled the Dash 80--twice--in a demonstration flight above Lake Washington in Seattle. The Comet was first out of the gate but turned out to be an aircraft too far ahead of its time--a fatal structural flaw caused by metal fatigure sometimes without warning caused the jetliner to disentegrate in the upper atmosphere, leading in 1952-53 to three mysterious high-altitude disasters that killed over 100 people. Part of Verhovek's story is about how the British swallowed their considerable national pride, grounded the Comet, and figured out what had gone wrong. Boeing learned from these tragic lessons and designed the 707 with a fuselage able to withstand a "guillotine test" without shredding. To tell the story of the "race to shrink the world," Verhovek disgresses to a number of interesting subtopics, including Boeing's invention of "the stewardess," (who was at first required to be an unmarried registered nurse), the first encounter between a British Mosquito and Germany's Me262 jet fighter near the end of World War II, the establishment of the American air mail industry, and the growth of commercial airlines in the United States in the 1930s. It's clear that Verhovek has a lot of passion for his subject and has taken the time to master its many interesting facets--it's as if Simon Winchester decided that he wanted to write about the aircraft. The result is a very readable book that I highly recommend.

pre-war Junkers airliners Ju 160 Deutsche Lufthansa - daily Ebay photo find #20

Ju 160 D-UGAZ, D-UQOR & He70 D-UBOX

http://www.ebay.de/sch/fotoshop44/m.html?item=261346050922&pt=Militaria&hash=item3cd970436a&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Soviet DC -3 in Berlin 1940 - Ebay Daily photo find #14

" Arrival of the first Russian aircraft - a Douglas DC-3 - in Berlin after a test flight (Probeflug) Moscow to Berlin during January 1940.."  Aeroflot DC-3 seen on arrival in Berlin after a Moscow-Berlin route proving flight in early 1940

http://www.ebay.de/itm/FOTO-FLUGZEUG-1-Russischer-Flieger-Douglas-D-C-3-in-Deutschland-8-1-40-/190966963435

Air France Airbus A320

During this week in March 1988 Airbus Industrie began deliveries of Airbus A320s to Air France. One of my memories of working for AF was a number of trips out of LHR Terminal 2 as 'ballast' on some A320 test trips - and having to hold on tight as the aircraft was literally thrown about the sky....

Below;    A319-111 F-GRXC




AIR FRANCE AIRBUS A318-111 F-GUGE at BHX via Paul Evans flickr images

Greek interlude - Skiathos airport landing/takeoff and Mirage crash and recovery Samos

Back from our hols last week - here we are having just landed at Skiathos airport in the Aegean sea. Skiathos lies only a few miles off the Greek mainland and has some beautiful beaches and green scenery - and a big enough runway for a 757, but with sea at both ends, landings and takeoffs can still give the impression of being a little hairy to the uninitiated ! The end of the runway is just a five minute walk from bus stop no. 1 and provides great viewing and filming opportunities. It's not quite St. Maarten but still impressive. Not that I bothered overly - the beaches on Skiathos are just too good to waste time..superb.

" Skiathos Airport is Europe’s equivalent to St Maarten in the Caribbean, where aircraft literally pass right before your eyes while landing...".

One or two interesting facts; only aircraft Captains can land their aircraft here - if the Captain is incapacitated for whatever reason then the First Officer must divert. As it is airliners often have to make a refuelling stop-over on the Greek mainland because of the weight issues involved at Skiathos. The biggest aircraft to land at Skiathos was an Air Italy B 767 in June 2011 (while I was there) - special dispensation had to be sought from the local aviation authority after the original aircraft planned for the sector went technical. The aircraft was flown in by one of the airline's most experienced Captains. The local authority are planning a 300 foot extension which will presumably encroach on the beach at the far (sea) end of the runway.

A single click to watch the videos and to enlarge the pictures...

And here's the travalogue





Eslsewhere in the Aegean  islands while we were away, the HAF were busy retrieving a two-seat Mirage 2000 BGM that came down in the sea off Samos on 9 June 2011 after experiencing a technical malfunction while on a low level maritime patrol. Both crew ejected safely. The aircraft was retrieved from a depth of 250 ft

http://news.in.gr/greece/article/?aid=1231114711