The cause of the Indian plane crash is glaringly obvious—it’s almost visible to the naked eye!

This afternoon, a devastating piece of news broke: An Air India flight bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport in India. The scene was shrouded in thick smoke, making it one of the worst aviation disasters in the past decade.

The severity of this accident is underscored by three key factors:

Firstly, the plane was packed with passengers. There were 242 people on board, including 53 British citizens, one Canadian citizen, seven Portuguese citizens, and the rest were Indians. Tragically, none of them survived.

Secondly, the plane crashed into a dormitory building of a medical college. Five students were killed on the spot, and many others were injured.

Given that the plane had just taken off and was almost full of fuel, the raging fire was uncontrollable, and the death toll on the ground is expected to rise.

Thirdly, the plane crashed less than a minute after takeoff. There was virtually no time for anyone to mentally prepare, not even a chance to write a last note.

Everyone is asking the same question: How could a plane crash just one minute after takeoff? The local airport’s weather and climate were perfectly normal today, with good visibility and minimal wind—weather conditions had nothing to do with it.

Was it a problem with the plane?

The crashed aircraft was the Boeing 787, a product that Boeing has always been proud of. Since its entry into service in 2011, this model has never had an accident. But this time, the first incident turned out to be a major one.

The Boeing 787 is supposed to be highly intelligent. If there was a design flaw, accidents would have occurred long ago. So, what could it be? It might be a pilot issue, or perhaps insufficient maintenance led to a malfunction.

From the analysis online, the cause seems quite clear: the plane’s flaps were not extended.

The video shows that the plane’s attitude didn’t seem too problematic; the landing gear was still down, and the nose was pulled up, but it just couldn’t climb.

It appears that the flaps were not deployed at all (flaps are typically set to 5 during takeoff). Flaps are movable devices on the trailing edge of the wings. During takeoff, they need to be extended (usually more than 10 degrees) to increase the curvature and surface area of the wings, thereby boosting the lift coefficient and allowing the plane to achieve sufficient lift at lower speeds.

In this case, the Indian flight crashed at a height of 190 meters due to a sudden loss of lift, which is consistent with the characteristics of a stall caused by missing flaps.

There are five possible causes of the accident:

1. The pilot forgot to extend the flaps, similar to forgetting to release the handbrake while driving.
2. Since the video is incomplete, it’s possible that the flaps were initially extended and the plane did take off, but the pilot retracted the flaps too early, causing insufficient lift and a subsequent crash. It’s hard to fathom why the pilot would retract the flaps before even retracting the landing gear!
3. Another possibility, as suggested by an expert, is that a bird strike damaged the flap sensors, leading to a misjudgment by the pilot and ultimately a crash due to excessive speed and insufficient lift.
4. Some local Indian netizens mentioned that the airport has bird deterrent devices, and usually there are no birds around. If we’re looking for an objective reason, it could be that the flap sensors malfunctioned due to quality issues just after takeoff and couldn’t be extended. If that’s the case, Boeing would undoubtedly be held responsible.
5. There’s also the possibility, though rare, that the pilot intentionally caused the crash in a suicide attempt, taking the lives of everyone on board and on the ground with him. However, it’s rumored that the pilot did send a distress signal to the control tower before the crash.

In summary, it seems more likely that the Indian pilot was unable to extend the flaps due to a mechanical failure, resulting in insufficient lift and a subsequent crash. Of course, this is just a personal analysis. The true cause can only be determined after the black box is found and analyzed by professionals.

Despite the tragic nature of this air disaster, it’s crucial to emphasize that flying is still the safest mode of transportation. Let’s look at the numbers: In terms of travel distance, the mortality rate per 1 billion kilometers is 0.05 for air travel, 0.6 for rail travel, and 3.1 for road travel—making air travel the safest. In terms of travel time, the mortality rate per 1 billion hours is 30 for rail travel, 30.8 for air travel, and 130 for road travel, with both air and rail travel being the safest.

The reason air crashes grab so much attention is because of the terrifying imagery of falling from the sky and explosions. But, rationally speaking, air travel is still the safest among common modes of transportation. We should continue to fly and not give up on it out of fear.