Engine failure most likely cause: Senior flight instructor
The Statesman | 15 June 2025
As the aviation experts try to speculate the reason for the unfortunate Dreamliner air disaster and the technicians decipher the black box details, a pilot, who had trained in USA and worked there as a flight instructor before taking up flying IndiGo planes and finally settling in India to be flight safety auditor, feels all possibilities point to a engine failure.
A second-generation pilot, who does not want to be named, rules out the fatigue angle. “This was the first flight of the day for the crew and a proper rest period is always given to the pilots, especially on international flights. Their rest period depends on the time zones they have crossed during duty hours. The bird-hit cause also looks very slim as the video evidence points out,” said the pilot who now teaches safety aspects in flights.
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Engine failure seems to be the most plausible. Some technical fault could have led to the mishap. Machines can go wrong at any time, feels the pilot. Pointing out to a prevalent belief on the “Swiss cheese model”, the senior instructor says that only when all the holes in a cheese layer get penetrated, an incident occurs. It is always a chain of events. It cannot be a single event leading to a catastrophe.
“In this case, I see a lack of lift in the aircraft. The video evidence shows pilots could manage the rotational speed for the take-off. Till that point there was no problem. From the visuals it is also clear that they did not retract the landing gear. I feel the aircraft was not getting enough lift. That could be because of the outside temperature being so high. High temperatures reduce the engine and aircraft performance. It will not develop as much lift as required. We have to see why the lift did not happen. Was it because the engines went off at the same time?”
“Also, I suspect the flaps of the aircraft were not extended. What also could have happened is a mistake on the crew part. Instead of the gear up, the co-pilot inadvertently did the flaps up, which would reduce the development of lift of the aircraft. I also believe that the landing gear was not retracted purposely as the pilots thought since we are going down, the landing gear would lessen the impact on the aircraft during a fall. I think the pilots did their best what they could in the given circumstances,” said the auditor
Regarding the findings of the Black Box, the senior aviation expert feels since insurance is a big factor, “I would not be surprised if the blame was squarely put on the pilots, since they are not alive. Lot of people and governments would be involved in this and the actual facts may get suppressed.”