A new bombshell video provides evidence that the Air India Boeing 787 lost power immediately after take-off, an aviation expert claims.
Commercial airline pilot Steve Schreiber said the HD-quality clip is a “gamechanger” in diagnosing the cause of the deadly crash.
At least 270 people were killed, 241 of them passengers, when the London Gatwick-bound Dreamliner jet suffered a “dual engine failure” and slammed into residential buildings, Mr Schreiber alleges.
The worst aviation disaster in more than a decade happened in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from doomed Flight AI171.
Mr Schreiber, best known as “Captain Steve” online, suspected there had been an exceptionally simple error when the co-pilot was asked to retract the landing gear with devastating consequences.
However, a higher quality version of the original crash video leads Mr Schreiber, 63, to believe a dual engine failure led to the plane’s demise.
Mr Schreiber, who has 26 years of flying experience - including 11 as a captain said on his YouTube channel that beneath the right wing, he could see a “protrusion on the belly of the aircraft”. Underneath, there is a “little grey dot” - evidence of the Ram Access Turbine deploying.
He claimed: “Many aeroplanes have it. It is just behind the wing on the right side of the aeroplane, there is a little door that holds it in.
“It looks like a little Evinrude motor, it’s a little two bladed prop.
“The purpose is to provide electrical and hydraulic pressure for the aircraft on an extreme emergency.”
Mr Schreiber said that on a 787 there are three things that will deploy the RAT automatically.
He said: “A massive electrical failure, a massive hydraulic failure, or a dual engine failure.
“Any one of those three things will cause that RAT to deploy.”
The protrusion and the grey dot were visual evidence of the RAT deploying on the aircraft, Mr Schreiber alleged.
He added: “That little grey dot is the RAT. The protrusion is the door that opened to allow the RAT to come down.”
Summing up his analysis, Mr Schreiber concluded: “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.”
The sole British survivor of the Air India plane crash spoke of watching people “dying in front of my eyes”.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, says he still “can’t believe how I survived”.
Mr Ramesh is still under observation for some of his injuries but doctors say he is doing well and will be discharged soon.
Four investigators from the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch arrived in India and have expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and recorded data.
Hundreds of relatives have provided DNA samples to help officials identify victims’ remains.
Mourners attending a vigil in London on Saturday to remember them became visibly emotional after learning that two young girls had been orphaned by the disaster.
Faith leaders from the Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities led the service at the Siddhashram Shakti Centre in Harrow where 20 of the victims are thought to have previously worshipped.
