The co-pilot of Air India Flight AI171 may have made a fatal error, causing the crash that killed 241 people onboard and dozens more on the ground, an aviation expert has claimed.
Captain Steve Scheibner, a veteran commercial airline pilot, claimed that the London Gatwick-bound 787 Dreamliner co-pilot may have been asked to retract the landing gear but pulled the wrong lever and instead raised the flaps.
The former American Airlines pilot’s claims, broadcast on his YouTube channel, came as it emerged that air accident investigators in India were planning to interview pilots and crew who had flown in the plane in the week leading up to the crash.
It is hoped they may hold clues as to why the plane crashed just minutes after take off from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on June 12.
Meanwhile, investigators are understood to have begun decoding the black box’s flight data to try to establish exactly what happened before the crash.
Mr Scheibner believes a simple catastrophic error may have caused the plane to plunge from the sky.
He said: “Here’s what I think happened, again folks this is just my opinion.
“I think the pilot flying said to the co-pilot ‘gear up’ at the appropriate time. I think the co-pilot grabbed the flap handle and raised the flaps, instead of the gear.
“If that happened, this explains a lot of why this aeroplane stopped flying.”
He explained how the wings would normally bend during take-off as the lift forces it into the air. But video footage appears to not show that happening, fuelling speculation that the flaps, used to help lift the plane, had been retracted.
The landing gear also remained down, despite it being normal procedure to lift them within a few seconds of clearing the tarmac.
Aviation experts have analysed the take-off footage and also highlighted concerns that the flaps appear to have been retracted and the undercarriage remains down.
Marco Chan, a former pilot and a senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University, told the BBC: “That would point to potential human error if flaps aren’t set correctly. But the resolution of the video is too low to confirm that.”
About 30 seconds after take-off, the plane dips and descends before exploding into a fireball as it crashes into buildings.
Both pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder are believed to be among the dead.
Mr Sabharwal had 8,200 hours of experience. Mr Kunder had 1,100 hours.
The cause of the crash remains a mystery, with theories focusing on whether it was a catastrophic mechanical failure or pilot errors.
Ed Pierson, a former manager at Boeing, said it was “possible” that safety concerns raised in 2019 could be to linked to the crash.
At the time, a whistleblower claimed that staff forced parts together to close gaps, which Boeing denied.
Mr Pierson testified to the US Congress that he had flagged safety issues with the company’s 737 Max variant in 2019. Boeing has strongly denied all claims, stating that the Dreamliner underwent 150,000 safety tests and audits.
On Saturday, Mr Pierson told NDTV, an Indian television network, that Boeing’s production facilities were “chaotic and dangerous”, adding: “We were rushing to build the planes to get them out of the door. Employees were pressured to get their work done.
“There were parts issues. We had aircraft systems issues that I remembered we were having difficulty with. And I remember being very concerned that we were taking unnecessary risks.”
A source linked to the investigation told Reuters that India’s aviation regulator had ordered safety checks on the Boeing 787 fleet.
He added that the official inquiry was initially focusing on engine thrust, the flaps and why the landing gear remained down after the plane was airborne.
The India-based source said another aspect of the investigation would look at Air India’s maintenance of the aircraft.
Other theories include the possibility of two air strikes taking out both engines, however, this is thought unlikely. An anti-terrorism team is understood to be part of the official investigation, although this is thought to be routine.
A team of four investigators from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has arrived in India to join experts from the US and India.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the British sole survivor of the crash, described seeing “lights flickering” moments after take-off. It remains unclear whether this was in any way connected to any wider failings, in part because the circuitry that controls internal lights is separate to electrical supplies that help fly the plane.
The aircraft began service in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014. It had completed 700 flights in the year leading up to the disaster.
It is understood the flight number AI171 is to be discontinued. It will be replaced with the flight number AI159.
