An aviation expert says new footage that has emerged of the Air India flight AI171 shows the aircraft lost power shortly after take off.
Commercial airline pilot Steve Schreiber said the new, clearer video shows ‘dual engine failure’ before it crashed last week, killing 241 passengers.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Captain Steve said he could see a ‘protrusion on the belly of the aircraft’ beneath the right wing of the plane and underneath this a ‘grey little dot’.
He says this means that the Ram Access Turbine (RAT), which is a small turbine that is used as an alternate power source, was deployed on the plane shortly before it crashed.
According to Steve, there are three reasons why a pilot might deploy the turbine on a Boeing 787.
This includes a massive electrical failure, a massive hydraulic failure, or a dual engine failure.
He said: ‘That little grey dot is the RAT. The protrusion is the door that opened to allow the RAT to come down.
‘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.
‘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.’
He added that eyewitness reports from sole survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, gives another clue about how the plane crashed.
Vishwash said the flight felt like it was ‘stuck in the air’ and that lights started ‘flickering green and white’.
Steve believes this could hold some vital information and added: ‘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.’
Websites like Aviation Herald have ruled out dual-engine failure, but Steve thinks the publication ‘probably got that wrong’ based on evidence he has seen.
The London Gatwick-bound 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and exploded over a residential area.
All passengers except one Brit were killed in the crash and 38 others were killed on the ground.
The crash of flight AI171 is one of the deadliest crashes in terms of the number of British nationals killed and the first involving a Boeing 787.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation by authorities.
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