Preliminary report into Air India crash released

Post by dubcanada » Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 9:47 AM UTC

superasn wrote: post #430

fsckboy wrote: post #72

it makes sense to me that the pilot who said "I did not do it" actually did do it without realizing it, was supposed to be putting the landing gear up when he committed a muscle memory mistake. it happened around the time the landing gear should be up, and this explanation matches what was said in the cockpit, and the fact that the landing gear wasn't retracted. I think this idea was even floated initially by the you…

Is there a video feed of the cockpit inside the black box? If not there should be one as even my simple home wifi camera can record hours of hd video on the small sd card. And If there is, wouldn't that help to instantly identify such things?

Post by neuronic » Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 9:52 AM UTC

0_-_0 wrote: post #372

russdill wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These switches are operated at startup and shutdown. So pretty much daily. By pilots and likely maintenance crews. Such a defect with not to unnoticed for long

It could have been unimportant to them

Post by notahacker » Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 9:55 AM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #308

karlgkk wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are reasons they don’t. This is a deceptively difficult problem Cost is a big one (satellite data is still quite a bit more expensive than you think, especially with many stations) And by stations, I mean aircraft. There are a TON. Current constellations probably wouldn’t even be able to handle half the current aircraft transmitting all at once. Bandwidth, in the physical sense, becomes a limiting factor Covera…

Most airplanes regularly crossing oceans already do have satcom. The cost of hardware and additional fuel consumption due to drag aren’t nothing, but the data used itself is essentially a rounding error. (Iridium for example has tiny antennas, and SBD data costs about a dollar per kilobyte, and position data is tiny.) Of course, that’s all little help when a pilot acts adversarial; on MH370, the breakers for both sat…

Post by xeonmc » Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 10:08 AM UTC

maxbond wrote: post #295

I just want to call out that, whatever the facts of this case, pilot heroism is way more common than pilot murder. This is off the top of my head, so don't quote me on the precise details, I'm probably misremembering some things. But a few of my favorite examples: - British Airways 5390: An incorrect repair causes the windshield of a plane to be blown out mid flight. A pilot is nearly sucked out. The head flight atte…

Post by throwawayben » Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 10:10 AM UTC

padjo wrote: post #380

efitz wrote: post #336

It’s interesting to see how many people are bending over backwards here to avoid coming to the obvious conclusion. If this was pilot suicide, it’s a terrible thing. If it was somehow an error (which seems very unlikely) or two defective controls (which seems even more unlikely), then it remains a tragedy. But I don’t need to do mental gymnastics to come up with implausible hypotheticals. This comment stream on HN is…

It’s nowhere near an obvious conclusion. A failure with the locking mechanism or muscle memory confusion are just as likely, and probably other theories I’m not thinking of. More investigation is clearly needed, which is why this is called a preliminary report.