Experts have offered insight into the fatal crash of Gatwick Airport-bound plane just moments after take-off in India on Thursday. A 40-year-old British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, is thought to be the sole survivor of the doomed flight, which was carrying over 200 people from the city of Ahmedabad to London.
While no official explanation has been offered as to why the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner exploded into a fireball and crashed into a residential part of western India, experts have speculated about the factors that may have played a part in the tragedy. Professor John McDermid, Lloyd’s Register Chair of Safety at the University of York, said it was “very unusual” for problems with an aircraft to occur just a few minutes into a journey. He told The Mirror: “Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight – accidents from cruise are very unusual.”
“That said, it’s surprising that the accident occured before the aircraft had even got to 200 metres altitude,” Mr McDermid added.
“Pilots can abort take-off quite late in the take-off roll, so it seems like the problem occured very suddenly in the final part of the take-off roll, or shortly after take-off, and was sufficiently serious to be unamanageable.”
Professor Paul Williams, who teaches atmospheric science at the University of Reading, added that the incident was unlikely to have been caused by bad weather.
“At the time of the departure, the weather conditions at the airport appear to have been very good,” he said. “It was a dry and sunny day in Ahmedabad, with temperatures near 40C.
“There was good visibility and light winds from the west. There is no indication at this stage that turbulence or other weather conditions were a factor in the crash.”
The aircraft reportedly issued a “mayday” call around five minutes after take-off, with data from Flightradar24 showing the plane reaching a maximum altitude of 625 feet, before beginning to descend at around 475 feet per minute.
Air India said 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals were onboard at the time of the crash.
Campbell Wilson, chief executive of Air India said: “This is a difficult day for all of us … and our efforts are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.”