Before crashing into a dormitory for students, the Rat turbine was activated on the 787-8 Dreamliner of Air India. What this emergency device is and why according to an expert can help to shed light on the causes of the accident, in which about 300 people have lost their lives.
On the left Captain Steve Scheibner, on the right the rat visible as a gray dot. Credit: Screenshot YouTube
A new detail that emerged from a movie more clear of theaccident of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner Of Air Indiaprecipitated on June 12, immediately after taking off near Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport Patel of Ahmedabad, could shed light on Causes of air disaster. In the video in question, in fact, it would be seen and he would feel in action the air turbine or Rat (acronym for RAM Air Turbine), a emergency system automated which in modern planes is basically only starts when the aircraft loses the sources of primary energy And auxiliary. As the name suggests, it is a wind turbine exploiting pale or propeller to generate energy from the flow of incoming air; In fact, it is used to “keep alive” i critical systems as flight commands and other instruments, in order to allow potential Emergency landing.
Investigations on the actual causes of the accident, which involved the Flight AI171 of the Indian company, they are continuing to the recovery of one of the two black boxes; Now, as highlighted by Reuters, they are concentrated on three key points: Motor pushes, position of flaps And trolleys lowered. As regards flaps or hypersenters, worst mobile structures for fundamental for the take -off And landing, the videos seem to suggest that they were not in the correct position. The trolleys, moreover, are always lowered for all 28 seconds, from take -off to the crash, instead of being retract immediately (some claim that once the very serious situation on board, i pilots may have focused on other critical details).
Extended flap. Credit: Wikipedia
The possible cause failure to fail the two engines
The push of the engines remains the crucial node; The great plane, about 11 years old, from the images seems to have not to have one adequate power to take altitude. You see it climbing for a few seconds, stabilize and then start inexorably to go down to the ground; The catastrophic impact against a dormitory for medical students – the BJ Medical College – will cause the death of 241 of the 242 people on board and several other dozens inside the building. A tragedy that has shaken the whole world. The publication of a new, more clear movie, could however help to finally clarify, aiming for the spotlight on a problem deemed highly unlikely in the initial stages: a fault with both engines. The Boeing 787 are safe and modern planes that had never been involved until 12 June fatal accidents. It is very rare that both engines of a modern aircraft can go in failurebut this may have happened, given the activation of the RAT.
What flaps are, how they work and what they have to do with the plane crash in India
In the new video you can see the small structure on the right of the “belly” of the aircraft, which appears like a small gray point. “At the center of the circle, you can see a kind of protrusion on the belly of the plane. Just below you see a small gray point and that small gray point is the rat,” he said in a Video on YouTube the captain Steve Scheibnerformer pilot of the US Navy – the US Navy – with more than 20,000 hours of experience of experience. “This is the visual confirmation of the activation of the RAT,” explains the expert. As indicated, this system generally activates automatically just when a failure occurs to both engines, with a simultaneous loss of energy from all available sources.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xy-mj1ugg
In suffrage of the visual data there are also the declarations of the only survivor on board – the 40 -year -old Ramesh Viscashkumar, who was sitting on the 11a seat – and the audio of the video. The man said that before the impact he heard a strong noisewhile a strange sound is heard in the movie. Scheibner said this SCRUIDO acute It is similar to that produced by apropeller“Like that of a small cessna passing”. It would be precisely the activation of the RAT, clearly not sufficient to allow to increase the lift And therefore the flight, but only to provide energy to those essential systems and give a chance to the pilots to govern the vehicle up to an emergency landing. It is not surprising that the rats are very common on military planes.
To confirm everything there would also be the Mayday launched by the pilots before the impact, during which they would report the loss of power, even if there are still no official declarations on the matter. But the activation of the RAT is a very significant event. “This places the theory of two engines In the first place, “Scheibner said, emphasizing, however, that this does not explain why the two engines of a 787 have stopped working simultaneously after take -off. A mystery that could be resolved with the in -depth analysis of the black box.
