Air India crash Bird strike a possible cause as Mayday call being probed

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BENGALURU/SINGAPORE – Investigators will need to understand the nature of a mayday transmission from an Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, but a possible cause could be a bird strike, preventing the plane from achieving the optimum speed for take-off, aviation experts said.

Aviation professional Hemanth DP told The Straits Times that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had a spotless record.

“If a plane of this calibre and size has to crash at such a low height of about 600 feet (183m) minutes after take-off, it must have been a catastrophic failure,” said Mr Hemanth, chief executive officer of Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy in Hyderabad.

Air India Flight AI171, carrying 242 passengers and crew members, was heading to London Gatwick Airport when it crashed shortly after take-off. More than 290 people are known to have died, including those on the ground. There is at least one survivor from the plane.

Mr Hemanth said it was too early to tell with certainty what had happened, based on amateur videos of the crash taken from the ground.

He said it would take a very large flock of birds, and both engines ingesting the birds simultaneously, to bring the plane down so quickly after take-off.

A bird strike is considered one of the most common wildlife hazards in aviation. It tends to happen during take-off, landing, or low-altitude flight, when planes are most likely to encounter birds. Bird strikes can be dangerous, especially if birds are ingested into aircraft’s engines or hit critical components such as the windscreen or wings.

Over 90 per cent of bird strikes occur at low altitudes during take-off and landing.

When a bird strike occurs, pilots may declare a mayday emergency. The Air India pilot made a mayday