Tragic: Air India Plane Crashes In Ahmedabad

Intro

It's been a rough year for commercial aviation, and today has made it even worse. Reports have been coming out that well over 200+ people have died today in India, after a Boeing 787-8 crashed less than a minute after takeoff. To say this is tragic is an understatement, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.

What Happened

Earlier today, an Air India Boeing 787-8 (tail code VT-ANB) was scheduled to operate a routine flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. The plane had arrived earlier that morning from Delhi, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

The plane backtaxied along the runway and proceeded to use the full runway (there was brief speculation due to data that it did not use the full runway, but that has since been cleared up) at Ahmedabad. The aircraft lifted off at 1:39 pm local time from runway 23, at which point the pilot declared Mayday immediately.

This is a horrifying accident.

Flight data showed that the aircraft climbed up to 625 feet before it couldn't climb anymore, and began descending.

The Dreamliner crashed into a hostel for medical staff, killing and injuring more civilians. Everyone on the plane has been reported deceased, minus a single passenger seated in 11A. I couldn't begin to imagine the emotions he is going through right now. Wow.

What Happened?

While no one will truly know what occured for quite a while due to a full investigation that will be taking place, reports have come out online of what actually occurred.

• A lot of people have speculated that there was a full loss of power, resulting in a dual-engine failure. That would confirm what the captain said after takeoff, "no thrust."

• As you can see from the pictures online, it seems that the RAT system has been deployed, so this would back up the claims of a full loss of power.

• This is all speculation, and a full report will be released in due time.

A tragic accident

To add on, this is the first complete hull loss we have seen from a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, of any variant, for that matter.

Final Thoughts

While people are still scrambling to get a full count of the deceased and understand what happened, the moral of the story is: what happened today was an absolute tragedy. Well over 200 people have died, and we should all collectively keep those affected in our thoughts and prayers. Wow.

Tragic.