Investigators are seeking to find out what caused an Air India flight to crash shortly after takeoff last week, killing more than 200 people. The aircraft, which was due to land at London Gatwick, hit a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board. 52 of these were British citizens. Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was the sole survivor. UK air accident investigators are in India, assisting the Indian authorities.
Two black boxes have been recovered from the wreckage, whose contents could prove crucial to ascertaining what unfolded. Investigators are reportedly studying the pilots’ last words for signs. The voice recorder is in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s second box, which officials announced that they had found on Sunday. The first, which contains the flight data recorder, was located within 28 hours. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal is understood to have sent a mayday call just seconds after the aircraft took off.
Now, an expert has detailed a crucial “first clue” that could shed some light.
“You can tell from the damage whether the engines were generating power at impact – turbines fracture differently when spinning at high speed,” Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told the BBC.
“That’s the first clue to what went wrong.”
Turbines play a key role in extracting energy so that planes can generate thrust.
Mr Goelz added: “If the engines weren’t producing power, investigators have a serious case on their hands – and the focus will shift sharply to the cockpit.”
British families of Air India crash victims are facing “pain and frustration” over delays in the identification and repatriation of their relatives, according to a UK Government minister.
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer told MPs that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) had set up its reception centre at a hotel close to the airport “because we thought that would be the best place to receive British nationals rather than the hospital where, tragically, there are no living British nationals”.
He added: “But we keep these questions under review, as I know from my own experience in tragedies like this, it is difficult to get the assistance that British nationals need right first time, and we will learn lessons as each step goes through.”
