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Analysis Of CCTV Footage Reveals RAT Deployment Indicative Of Dual-Engine Shutdown Before Crash
According to an aviation specialist, a new shocking video shows that the Air India Boeing 787 lost power just after takeoff, causing the deadly disaster that took 241 lives.
“A new HD-quality video is a ‘gamechanger’ in diagnosing the cause,” said Steve Schreiber, a commercial airline pilot who examines plane crashes and near misses.
According to him, evidence shows that the doomed Dreamliner experienced a “dual engine failure” prior to the most catastrophic aviation accident in almost ten years.
Shortly after taking off, the jet started to lose altitude and crashed into a Gujarati hostel before exploding into a blaze.
The plane crashed into residential structures, killing 36 people on the ground and killing all but one of the 242 passengers in the horrific catastrophe.
Both of the aircraft’s black boxes are now in the possession of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is working to determine why the aircraft crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad for London Gatwick.
When the co-pilot was instructed to retract the landing gear, Mr. Schreiber, who is best known online as Captain Steve, initially thought there had been a very basic mistake in the cockpit that had disastrous results.
Nevertheless, a better quality version of the crash’s original footage has surfaced, complete with better sound and images, which Mr. Schreiber thinks may demonstrate that the plane’s horrifying last minutes were caused by a dual engine failure.
The 63-year-old, who has flown in 60 different aeroplanes and has 26 years of flying experience, including 11 as a captain, claimed that a small element in the new video is a “total gamechanger.”
Mr Schreiber explained on his Youtube channel Captain Steeeve that beneath the right wing of the aeroplane, he could see a “protrusion on the belly of the aircraft”. Underneath that there is a “little grey dot”, he added.
According to him, this is proof that the aircraft’s Ram Access Turbine (RAT) has deployed.
“Many aeroplanes have it,” he said. “It is just behind the wing on the right side of the aeroplane, there is a little door that holds it in.”
“It looks like a little Evinrude motor, it’s a little two bladed prop.”
“The purpose is to provide electrical and hydraulic pressure for the aircraft on an extreme emergency.”
According to Mr. Schreiber, the RAT will automatically deploy on a 787 due to three factors.
He said, “A massive electrical failure, a massive hydraulic failure, or a dual engine failure.”
“Any one of those three things will cause that RAT to deploy.”
The protrusion and the grey dot, according to the aviation expert, were visible signs that the RAT had deployed on the aeroplane.
He added, “That little grey dot is the RAT. The protrusion is the door that opened to allow the rat to come down.”
Mr. Schreiber went on to describe the second piece of evidence, which was the video’s audio.
He said, “A RAT makes a distinctive sound, it sounds like a propeller aeroplane going by, or a real high-pitched squeal. It is basically spinning at the speed of sound to produce the energy, electrical and hydraulic that it needs to.”
“If you weren’t looking at it, it sounded like a single-engine prop aeroplane just flew by.”
“The RAT was originally designed as the absolute last resort, assuming there is going to be a dual engine failure at altitude.”
“It is not designed for an aeroplane at 400- 500ft. But it is evidence for us.”
According to his theory, a dual-engine failure caused the catastrophe.
He added, “It is evidence for us it was dual engine failure, most likely. It could have been electrical issue, it could have been hydraulic issue, it could have been either one of that.”
“But I think the fact the aeroplane is mushing out the sky gives the idea it was a dual engine failure.”
Mr. Schreiber thinks the eyewitness account from the lone survivor, 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, offers the third clue to the plane’s fate in addition to the visual and aural evidence offered by the new film.
The 40-year-old British national said he had spent over a year in India with his brother and was taking the Gatwick-bound plane back to London, where his family resides, on Thursday.
He was in seat 11A on the tragic Ahmedabad flight, which has already killed 279 people and is regarded as one of the worst in Indian aviation history.
The 35-year-old brother of the 40-year-old, Ajay Kumar, who was seated in seat 11J across the aisle, is one of the 53 British nationals thought to have died in the fireball explosion.
Describing what happened after take off in an interview from his hospital bed he said, “When the flight took off, within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air.”
“Suddenly, the lights started flickering – green and white.”
“The aircraft wasn’t gaining altitude and was just gliding before it suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.”
It followed a passenger’s assertion that the jet’s electronics, including the screens in the seats, were malfunctioning during the flight the day before the tragedy.
Mr. Schreiber thinks his brief interview might provide additional information about the plane’s fate.
He explained, “He said just prior to the crash, he heard a loud bang and the lights flickered on the inside of the aeroplane.”
“We have got a guy saying he heard a loud bang and the lights flickered, what would cause that? The deployment of the RAT.”
“It’s going to take over electrical and hydraulic and as it does that the lights in the aeroplane would flicker.”
“I have heard reports the captain got out a mayday call and he said they were losing thrust.”
“That could be the fourth piece of evidence for dual engine failure.”
Aviation Herald, which covered the disaster from India, rejected the evidence that the crash might have been caused by a dual-engine failure.
However, Mr. Schreiber stated that, based on the evidence he has seen, he believes the magazine “probably got that wrong.”
Even though the evidence provides ‘a lot more clarity’ on the incident, he feels that it also puts the investigation ‘back to square one’ because he doesn’t understand why a 787’s two engines would burn out immediately after takeoff.
The new video surfaced after it was discovered to be the original footage of a film that was circulated globally but was actually a phone recording.
Mr Schreiber explained, “The video that we all saw was a video of a video and the quality was extremely poor. The original is much sharper. What happened was some cameraman was standing in front of the screen watching the video play. You can see him at the end of it. The audio is not very good and the visual is not very good.”
His new finding regarding the cause of the crash was aided by the quality of the original audio and film.
Locals have praised the India Air plane’s pilot as a hero when it was revealed that he saved the lives of eighteen families by veering the aircraft at the last second to avoid an apartment block.
According to The Sun, the families believe they owe their lives to Captain Semeet Sabharwal, who redirected the plane that was headed their way when it started to descend quickly after takeoff.
Instead, Captain Sabharwal was able to steer the aircraft in the direction of a grassland area.
When the jet exploded into a fireball near a medical college in Ahmedabad, residents fled their houses.
The collision destroyed the top two floors of a four-story military facility that was no longer in use.
After that, hundreds of students and staff who were eating in the cafeteria were killed when a fire destroyed the college’s dorm.
The 55-year-old Captain Sabharwal was the son of an officer with India’s civil aviation body and a seasoned pilot with over 8,200 hours of flight time.
He called his father, who is now in his 80s, before leaving because he was the primary carer for him.
Four investigators with backgrounds in engineering, aircraft operations, and recorded data have arrived in India, according to a Friday night announcement from the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).
“The release of information on the investigation rests solely with the Indian authorities,” it added.
According to Air India, the flight included 12 staff members, 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
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