Expert discusses possibility of "fuel contamination" behind Ahmedabad plane crash

Time of India

14-06-2025

Chennai: Former Deputy Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Saligram J. Murlidhar, called the
Ahmedabad plane crash
one of the most unfortunate incidents in India's recent history, and raised the possibility of
fuel contamination
as a major factor behind the tragic incident.
Speaking to ANI, Saligram J. Murlidhar said, "The
Ahmedabad
plane crash was one of the most unfortunate incidents in Indian recent history. The aircraft is a
Boeing Dreamliner
. It is one of the most ultramodern aircraft with all the safety precautions, navigation, and it is almost foolproof."
According to Murlidhar, the aircraft carried more than 35 tons of fuel, and its inability to gain altitude suggested a major technical failure.
He explained that authorities were trying to locate the
Flight Data Recorder
(FDR) and the
Cockpit Voice Recorder
(CVR) to analyse the final moments of the flight.
"The first thing they have to do is to locate the Flight Data Recorder (FDR). They have to pull out the memory card from the FDR, mount it on a healthy unit, which can be replayed, and then download the data to a computer to start your analysis. Similarly, you get the data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and you try to synchronise those two to see what the conversation that has taken place, and then you try to correlate the root cause of this crash," Murlidhar explained.
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Murlidhar ruled out a bird strike as a possibility for both engines failing simultaneously, stating that such an event would not have affected both engines at once.
"If we look into the possibility of both the engines malfunctioning, it cannot be due to a bird strike because if it is due to a bird strike, then you will get some arcing sparking and smoke and both the engines will not encounter the bird strike at the same time," he noted.
The expert suggested that fuel contamination may have been the cause of the crash, as it could lead to a thrust loss or power failure in both engines.
"One of the reasons that can cause thrust loss, power loss, which prevented the aircraft from climbing, is fuel contamination. So if the fuel is contaminated, both engines will behave the same way, and the thrust generated is less, and the aircraft could not sustain the climb rate. It descended and it fell because it contained more than 35 tons of fuel to reach London. The moment it crashed, there was a big, huge fireball," he added.
On Thursday, the Al-171
Boeing
Dreamliner 787-8 aeroplane bound for London's Gatwick had crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport. The airlines said only one out of the 242 people on board the aircraft survived the crash.
The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours.
According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls.
Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter, and heavy black smoke began emanating from the accident site.
There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national on board the crashed plane, airline authorities said.