Air India Crash

I’ve been discussing this with a friend who’s been in the sim industry since the mid 1980s, he works at a place very close to a major USA airport right now.

First, he took a 763 from takeoff to FL320 with the pumps off. Thrust was reduced but there was no problem. Then he took a 744 from takeoff to FL320 as well with the pumps off. This was a little different, the outboard engines ran at reduced thrust and the inboard ran at full power. He puts that down to the nearer engines starving the others.

To quote:

“The simulation for that kind of thing is based on data supplied by Boeing, so it's not typically an educated guess.”

PSX does the same.

I would assume that the 787 behaviour is very similar.

I would 100% say that this wasn’t caused by the fuel pumps being off as was suggested earlier. It simply wouldn’t cause this.

For those that don’t believe me, he sent me a video. I’ve got the whole thing up to FL320 in glorious 1080p as well.

Fs2024 in full VR mode. Nice.

....and I have to eat my metaphorical captains hat for saying it wasn't possible.

The video is convincing and I'd agree, it should be possible to take-off without fuel pumps on.

Out of interest, what does your MEL allow you to dispatch without in terms of tank pumps?
 
Fs2024 in full VR mode. Nice.



Out of interest, what does your MEL allow you to dispatch without in terms of tank pumps?
Essentially both main tanks have 2 pumps (fwd and aft) - you can operate without 1 but there is a minimum amount of fuel in the tank not to be used to ensure the suction feed line never becomes uncovered, particularly with pitch attitudes associated with takeoff. There are some other bits about both fwd pumps being serviceable if an aft one is not or vice versa.

The center tank has two pumps (left and right), essentially both can be out but you can't use the fuel in that tank.

All the fuel lines feed into a fuel manifold prior to the engines, the center tank pumps have a higher output pressure that the 2 main tanks so that center tank fuel is used first. Obviously if neither center tank pump is working the main tank pumps will feed onto the fuel manifold at a higher pressure. I guess you know this bit already.

There are various notes about changes to the performance calculations under different circumstances (center tank is empty or contains fuel etc). And quite a lot about the maintenance actions to isolate the various pumps etc and ensure other systems or indicators are working correctly

That's my understanding of it anyway.
 
Last edited:
All the fuel lines feed into a fuel manifold prior to the engines, the center tank pumps have a higher output pressure that the 2 main tanks so that center tank fuel is used first. Obviously if neither center tank pump is working the main tank pumps will feed onto the fuel manifold at a higher pressure. I guess you know this bit already.

Lots of experience on various (unique) platforms but I’m not experienced on 73 or 78 so I’m not going to assume how they work as aircraft systems can be so particular - your explanation was perfect. :D
 
I still think gear up triggered some major issue somehow, lots of people saying that the gear looks as if it started the retraction sequence.
 
I still think gear up triggered some major issue somehow, lots of people saying that the gear looks as if it started the retraction sequence.

Given the timings involved, including the length of time for the engines to wind down, I’d say it’s more likely to be closer to rotate speed, when the leave the runway and the Weight on Wheels switches (or 787 equivalent) flip the aircraft from ground to air mode.
 
Anything come out of the investigation to the root cause?

I'm surprised it's taken this long to release an initial findings.

It will take months but the longer it goes on the more it points towards pilot error. They would know quite quickly if there is an issue with the planes that requires grounding.
 
It will take months but the longer it goes on the more it points towards pilot error. They would know quite quickly if there is an issue with the planes that requires grounding.

Quite the opposite I would say. Pilot error will quickly show up as an inappropriate action recorded in the FDM. Trawling through millions of lines of code to replicate a 1 in a million software fault will take quite some time. As will identifying a million to one mechanical failure.

Anyway, it's too early for the preliminary report yet.
 
What, like the 737 Max?

I don't think Boeing would make the same mistake twice but you never know. Everyone must be watching them like a hawk after what happened.

I would say from the outside Air India pilots being suspended and the pilots management being sacked is a far bigger indicator of what is going on.



I understand this would be par for the course with investigators coming in but it doesn't paint a good picture.
 
I don't think Boeing would make the same mistake twice but you never know. Everyone must be watching them like a hawk after what happened.

I would say from the outside Air India pilots being suspended and the pilots management being sacked is a far bigger indicator of what is going on.



I understand this would be par for the course with investigators coming in but it doesn't paint a good picture.

There could be cultural element to that, where the reality goes out the window and it's whatever the boss tells you.. all the way up. Likely they're the scapegoats.
 
I don't think Boeing would make the same mistake twice but you never know. Everyone must be watching them like a hawk after what happened.

I would say from the outside Air India pilots being suspended and the pilots management being sacked is a far bigger indicator of what is going on.



I understand this would be par for the course with investigators coming in but it doesn't paint a good picture.

We’re also still waiting on a final report for this one at the end of 2021 where the pilot claimed to simply be following the Flight Director while the aircraft was barely climbing away from the ground:


I’m struggling to see a ‘pilot error’ pathway that can account for many of the things we’ve seen on AI171 though, I have to admit.
 
It will take months but the longer it goes on the more it points towards pilot error. They would know quite quickly if there is an issue with the planes that requires grounding.
The longer it goes on the more it points to being something totally obscure and not obvious from FDR.

It'll probably be a combination of factors in the end, it usually is.
 
Last edited:
I don't think Boeing would make the same mistake twice but you never know. Everyone must be watching them like a hawk after what happened.

I would say from the outside Air India pilots being suspended and the pilots management being sacked is a far bigger indicator of what is going on.



I understand this would be par for the course with investigators coming in but it doesn't paint a good picture.

I'm afraid those articles are probably just an example of the complete lack of any understanding of aviation that your average journalist has.

Regarding the Independent article:

There's not a lot of details about exactly what happened but I'd just make a few points.

It's entirely normal for pilots to be removed from flight operations whilst an investigation is conducted - it's happened to me in the past. Since the outcome of the investigation is not known at the beginning it's entirely possible they did nothing wrong. You can't infer from the fact an investigation was conducted that anything was done incorrectly (although it may have been).

From the article they took off in the vicinity of thunderstorms. The event sounds like windshear due to those storms although the article gives no clue as to what actually happened. If you are correctly performing a windshear escape maneuver you can fly all the way up to intermittent stick shaker (and should if required)

A quote from the article

"Notably, the initial flight report only cited “stick shaker due to turbulence”, omitting the more serious alerts, the report said. A deeper review of the flight data recorder later revealed that a stall warning and GPWS “don’t sink” caution had also occurred – findings that emerged amid heightened DGCA scrutiny following the AI171 crash."

A stick shaker is a stall warning - it's the only stall warning you'll get on a B777. An EGPWS (The B777 is very unlikely to have the simpler GPWS system) 'Don't sink' aural annunciation refers to height loss after takeoff and is completely in line with the crew experiencing severe windshear after takeoff. It's also not a particularly serious alert, being classified as a caution rather than a warning. Severe windshear is terrifying and it's entirely possible the crew simply missed it. Now you could possible criticise the crews decision to take off in the first place but I can assure you, operating around thunderstorms is tricky at the best of times, or it's possible they did in fact somehow stall the aircraft after takeoff but since the article is so light on details it's largely meaningless.

And since the article is largely meaningless, to me at least, it's impossible to infer any kind of company cultural or corporate failings. Or any link whatsoever to the recent crash.

Regarding the Sun article:

Well, first of all, it's the Sun.

I'm not sure if the flight time limit of 10 hours is correct, certainly you can fly for much longer than that. However, breaching flight time limitations is not uncommon and I can believe Air India may well have done this (and may well do it regularly). This does speak to more corporate failings. But I don't really know either way. And either way, breaching FTLs is unlikely to have caused the recent crash. (Although it may be a factor - I don't know). Who would have thought the Sun could provide a more useful article (if only marginally) than the Independent.

In short - in the absence of any relevant information, these to articles seem to be more about driving site traffic than offering any real insight to the crash.
 
We’re also still waiting on a final report for this one at the end of 2021 where the pilot claimed to simply be following the Flight Director while the aircraft was barely climbing away from the ground:


I’m struggling to see a ‘pilot error’ pathway that can account for many of the things we’ve seen on AI171 though, I have to admit.

Your link the the Emirate B777 was from my understanding at least (I haven't read the report in detail but I know people who are closer to the event), a quite astonishing pilot error. They appear to have set zero feet in the MCP (Autopilot) control panel and then blindly followed the flight directors. Completely oblivious to the fact the most of the Dubai skyline was above them. I know the report says otherwise (4000') but from my understanding that's not correct.

I should point out that I haven't haven't kept abreast of any recent developments but that was my understanding from speaking to people at the time.
 
Your link the the Emirate B777 was from my understanding at least (I haven't read the report in detail but I know people who are closer to the event), a quite astonishing pilot error. They appear to have set zero feet in the MCP (Autopilot) control panel and then blindly followed the flight directors. Completely oblivious to the fact the most of the Dubai skyline was above them. I know the report says otherwise (4000') but from my understanding that's not correct.

I should point out that I haven't haven't kept abreast of any recent developments but that was my understanding from speaking to people at the time.

I’d forgotten about it till the links above were posted, and a quick google suggests the final report has not been released - assuming it ever will be. It does boggle the mind how simply ‘flying the plane’ seemed to be an afterthought.
 
Back
Top Bottom