Yesterday, we saw the tragic crash of an Air India Boeing 787, claiming at least 290 lives (between those onboard and those on the ground). This is a huge tragedy, and understandably, people want answers, though an investigation will take time.
Continue reading: “Shocking” Video Of Air India Boeing 787 Cabin Before Crash: Yeah, No…
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As you point out at the end I don't think anything is that unusual. Also the person directly infront of him is watching a movie on the IFE which suggests their screen was working.
Everyone wants to get that few minutes of fame. Off course it could also be because of pure ignorance about how aircrafts work but then again the Indian media are not doing themselves any favors by giving air time to such New York Post/The Sun level of journalism
That said, this should also be a wake up call for Air India to maintain their cabins. They are in deplorable conditions, especially in their older aircrafts. The lack of any willingness of fix them or clean them is astounding, even when it has been awhile since privatization. I flew VT-ANT and VT-ANE last year, both in terrible conditions
Ben just want to say that I always appreciate that you take an extremely level headed and reasonable approach to things. Incredibly rare in online commentators.
The AC not working while on the ground in northern Indian summer is brutal. Temperatures could rise up to 45C+ (or 113F+), and apparently this week reported a heat wave in the region.
he acknowledges that it is up to investigators to determine the significance of this information to the accident if any at all. That is a reasonable standard.
The chances are high that AI's maintenance and flight ops (pilot) procedures will be in focus; even though the 787 has had a lot of production issues, it is a stable platform which pilots know safely how to fly. something went terribly wrong.
Supposedly the black boxes have been recovered which is not a surprise given that the tail of the aircraft was intact in a building.
I suspect there will be some quick indications of what went wrong which will shed far more light than the speculation that always follows accidents.
Just to add further from my experience of flying dozens of domestic flights in India during summer, planes are typically cooled even during taxiing. So it’s quite unusual that the AC was not switched on.
Unfortunately, one stereotype that can’t be associated with Indians is them being rational. And less one speaks about Indian media the better. You think Fox and OAN are bad, wait till you watch Indian news channels.
I agree with your last paragraph but I’m not sure about parts of the first. This sub-fleet of 787-8s is a decade+ old when the issues with this model were a little more profound. They had grounded them for a while. I had flown on some of these and they were subject to many cancellations. The platform may not have overarching problems but I don’t think that’s the correct depth of analysis. In fact, AI maintenance has had a better record than this sub-fleet so I’d argue Boeing is a bigger area of scrutiny. Just like many other problems recently.
I agree with you.
This particular aircraft is an early build 787 that was reportedly parked for a number of years and then had to incorporate revisions that were later required.
and there are later build 787s that have had to be reworked after manufacturing with concerns that some of concerns that were raised about manufacturing processes at that time could affect those aircraft later on.
Aircraft are not like cars where there are thousands that are mechanically or technically identical so that large portions of a production run can be recalled if something is found to be wrong.
whether that was an issue w/ this particular aircraft will come out in time but I suspect early indications will show issues that are not specifically related to the 787. I, of course, could be wrong.
I am thinking or the sole survivor Vishwashkumar Ramseh, in seat 11A.
He walked away, with very few injuries. Apparently superficial.
Meanwhile he must be psychologically in bad state as it was traumatic.
There he is lying in his hospital bed with cameras and the press sticking microphones in his face.
Hopefully he has friends and family locally to support him until he is fit to return to the UK.
sounds like another case of US empire capitalism, cost cutting, and whistle blowers having chronic "accidents"....
I can't imagine what it must be like to be the lone survivor to walk away from something like that. I'm hoping for the best for him.
Pretty incredible that he survived because seat 11A its next to the wing and almost on top of the wing box were the majority of the fuel its for that mega explosion.
Another passenger without any knowledge of how commercial airplanes work.
The APU that is running AC for the cabin prior to engine start has to dedicate all its airflow to turning the fan blades to start the process of engine start. As indicated, this is why typically the airflow from the gasper vents stop during engine start. Furthermore, once the engines are started, the bleed air and packs need to be reconfigured for normal airflow by the FO and this takes a few minutes.
Also, hot and high airports, and/or limited runways can force NO BLEED takeoffs to ensure meeting airfield performance, which means no airflow except via the APU until reconfigured for normal bleed configuration after take off and during climb segment of flight.
Don’t even comment on “flaps” movement during cruise. Highly probable this person can’t differentiate between flaps, ailerons, spoilers, all parts of the wing that move constantly during cruise flight based on turns, climbs, descents.
Former Airbus/ Current Boeing Pilot here…
This plane is old enough to have gone through D check. That means the plane got taken apart, a myriad of parts inspected and replaced, and reassembled.
Just a reminder, the Entertainment console of Swissair 111 was the primary reason for electrical fire that doomed that flight.
While isolated, the passenger sharing images of inbound Delhi-AMD flight with no inflight screens working, could result in electrical issues.
The 787 does not use bleed air from the engines or apu. Yes the ac is off during engine start due to electrical power requirements .
Passengers were commenting on the A/C on the plane, compared to on the bus, as they left the aircraft after a 95-minute flight. So we get an explanation of why the A/C doesn't work well before departure.
This event was related to their cabins? A "wake up call" about their cabins because the aircraft crashed?h
I roll my eyes...
Except for the fact that the guy who was the survivor of this plane crash said the lights started flickering right before the plane went down. Oh and there is reporting the pilot reported loss of power to ATC when they called mayday.
Re "If non responsive entertainment caused... etc...", it sometimes does, though not necessarily on Air India: The Peggy's Cove MD 11 crash, in 1997, of Swissair flight SR 111 was due precisely to the inflight entertainment not working, then arcing, creating a devastating cockpit fire. 229 dead.
@LAXLonghorn Read again both the article and contents of my text because clearly you didn’t comprehend it
Entertainment systems on board not working is not at all “shocking”!!! A couple of months ago an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam didn’t have entertainment system nor wi fi on board. This fact was communicated to us politely when we were boarding. So this is not an Air India specific situation. I am not saying AI legacy aircraft are all in the best of shape.
Looking up that particular plane on flightradar24, it was consistently dalayed for almost all flights the days before. Could be maintenance, could be anything. Let’s wait for the experts to do their work, for them to make flying once again safer.
He said that the cabin air conditioning wasn't working on the previous Air India flight. Can you imagine what that must have smelled like?
As much as your insight is spot on. Let’s be clear… “former pilot” is not the qualification pilots think it is for diagnosing air traffic accidents or really anything with the intricacies of a multi-million dollar vehicle.
Former Airbus engineer here…
This isn’t common to just this poster — there’s tons of these videos across social media. Yes, an entertainment system might not be the cause of the crash… but the poor state of the AI fleet in general is indicative of the culture of the aircraft maintenance program of AI….
Nope, it's not - engineering maintenance and passenger amenities are completely different teams and budgets. There's a visible gap in statistics as far as how good a safety record AI has had vs how bad their customer experience may be. So this is faulty logic.
Not the point I was trying to make. The entire airline is plagued with poor corporate culture. The reason social media is littered with videos of poor experiences on AI is because that is the only part people actually experience. If AI cannot even be bothered to work on the component that it’s customers experience, I can only imagine their take on the parts of the company the customer doesn’t experience - everything from pilots training to maintenance.
There is no “visible gap” in statistics:
May 2010 - 158 people killed
August 2020 - 21 people killed
Sept 2024 - engineer failure
Oct 2024 - hydraulics failure
Dec 2024 - pilot started to take off on a taxiway
Dec 2024 - tire disintegrated
Jan 2025 - engineer failure
You couldn’t pay me to set foot on an AI aircraft.