Aviation experts identify potential cause of Air India crash that crashed with 242 on board

Aviation safety experts have suggested a potential cause for the Air India plane which crashed moments after take off.

Yesterday (12 June), Air India flight 171 crashed just moments after taking off from an airport in Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet, which was heading to London Gatwick, crashed into a housing block at the city's B. J. Medical College.

It's understood that 241 out of 242 people onboard the aircraft died in the crash, with the sole survivor escaping through the emergency exit next to his seat.

The exact number of injuries and fatalities on the ground is yet to be confirmed.

An investigation into the cause of the deadly crash is now underway, with several aviation experts already offering their theories about what could've happened in the jet's final moments.

What are experts saying about the Air India plane crash?

The aircraft crashed around 30 seconds after take off (Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The cause of the crash has yet to be officially confirmed, an investigation is currently underway, however numerous theories have been put forward, including issues with wing flaps, bird strikes or double engine failure.

According to aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas, the aircraft's flaps - which help increase or decrease the surface area of an aircraft's wings - weren't in the correct position after take off.

"When I'm looking at this [footage], he told the BBC. "The undercarriage is still down but the flaps have been retracted."

This argument was backed up by Terry Tozer, who believed the flaps weren't properly extended in the clip.

"That would be a perfectly obvious explanation for an aircraft not completing its take off correctly," he added to the outlet.

Meanwhile, Dr Sonya Brown, a senior lecturer in aerospace design at the University of New South Wales, told The Guardian the aircraft appeared to have stalled in clips circulating online.

Images taken in the aftermath of the crash show parts of the plane inside B. J. Medical College (Raju Shinde/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

"It does look to me like a significant loss of thrust. Aircraft lift is proportional to speed squared, so if you don’t have thrust and you lose speed – and radar data suggests after the initial short climb it was losing speed – you can stall," she explained.

A video taken from a passenger who travelled on the same plane hours before the crash showed issues with air-conditioning, call buttons, lighting and TV screens in the seats.

Aviation experts who spoke to The New York Times also suggested factors such as high temperatures in the city and fuel contamination, while investigators are likely to examine factors such as human error, mechanical failure or poor maintenance.

Pilot's final words and black boxes recovered

The final words of the pilot Sumeet Sabharwal also suggest technical issues, with the London Evening Standard reporting that Sabharwal said the plane was 'losing power' and cried 'mayday'.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was the flight's sole survivor (Hindustan Times)

Sabharwal is reported to have also warned that he had 'no thrust' and was 'unable to lift' less than 650ft in the air.

Two of the aircraft's black boxes has also been recovered, according to The Independent.

Aircraft black boxes record flight data and information as well as recordings from inside the cockpit and are often crucial in understanding why a plane has crashed.

The miracle of seat 11a

At first, it seemed impossible for anyone to have survived the crash, with police officials initially expecting everyone onboard to have died, until a video circulating on social media revealed that one man had survived by escaping out of an emergency exit.

The man, identified as British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, is currently receiving treatment in hospital for his injuries.

Ramesh had been seated in seat 11a, which is next to the emergency exit in Boeing 787 planes.

Footage showing the British national in the aftermath (X)

The 45-year-old explained that he escaped from a small space near the exit, with his hands being burned by the flames as he fled.

His miraculous survival is one which left former US Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector David Soucie surprised, with the expert telling CNN that he wouldn't have thought it possible.

"[That seat is] right where the spar of the wing would go under and it would be a solid place for the aircraft to hit the ground, but as far as survivability above it, that is incredibly surprising." he said.