Pilots have hidden agreement to always say two haunting words before plane crash
A pilot has revealed that there are two specific words that Swiss pilots will always say before a plane crash - it is said to be a part of aviation culture in the country
The world is still desperate for answers on exactly how the Air India plane crash unfolded, and investigators are getting closer and closer with fresh evidence.
Officials working on the probe now believe that the horrific catastrophe could have been caused by the aircraft running on emergency power.
Last Thursday, the Boeing Dreamliner plane hurtled to the ground in Ahmedabad, India mere seconds after taking off. The plane crashed into a medical college building, killing a total of 270 people - including all but one of the 242 passengers on board.
Now investigators are said to have found evidence that an emergency generator may have been the jet's primary power source at the time it went down. One leading theory is that the plane suffered a dual engine failure, though what triggered this is yet to be determined.
The ongoing probe is also set to study the pilots' last words for any clues on the cause of the crash, after recovering the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, and his co-pilot Clive Kundar, with 1,100 hours of experience, sent a mayday call seconds after the plane left the runway.
The captain desperately said: "Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift." Sadly, the pilots were unable to nudge up the nose of the aircraft - and it came down just 1.5 miles beyond the end of the runway.
For years, the final words of pilots have been used to analyse what went wrong in aviaton disasters. And pilots hailing from Switzerland are said to have a hidden agreement on the last phrase they utter before their demise.
Richard Paul, a pilot and economist, once revealed what those words are in a post on Quora. "Goodbye everybody" is the phrase they always say, the insider wrote.
"It's what Swiss pilots are supposed to say just before they meet their demise," he hauntingly revealed, according to The Express.
He said it's a practice is deeply rooted in the culture of Swiss captains, adding: "It's an informal agreement among pilots."
This has been the case in historic plane crashes, including the 1970 Swiss Air disaster, Richard noted. "These were the last spoken words by Captain Karl Berlinger on his flight Swissair SR 330 from Zürich to Tel Aviv on February 21, 1970."
Reports from the time confirm that this was the case - the parting words were said at precisely 1:34pm, conveyed clearly to the ground control.
A bomb set by terrorists detonated aboard the aircraft, sparking the catastrophic event. The fateful statement from the captain came approximately 15 minutes prior to impact.
An attempt for an emergency landing failed due to the extensive smoke emanating from the explosive device.
The act of terrorism resulted in the deaths of everyone onboard, including 38 travellers and nine crew members.
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The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
The questions behind the Air India plane crash: What caused it and what happens next?
At least 275 people have been confirmed dead after an Air India flight bound for London crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday 12 June, in what is now the world's deadliest air disaster in a decade. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed from Ahmedabad airport in the western state of Gujarat at 1.39pm local time (8.09am BST). But after issuing a mayday call, it crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar just five minutes after taking off, India's civil aviation authority confirmed. Gujarat health officials said on 25 June that the final death toll was believed to be 275, including passengers, crew, and residents of the medical college hostel struck by the aircraft. Rescue crews and investigators took days to sift through the charred remains of the hostel and aircraft as large cranes were deployed to clear the debris. Images of the dining area of the medical college hostel showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, with debris, personal belongings and uneaten lunches scattered across the floor. Both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – the aircraft's black boxes – have now been recovered, officials confirmed. Work to extract the data from the recorders began on 24 June. The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who had been sitting in seat 11A, was identified by local police shortly after the crash. Here is everything we know about the crash so far: What happened prior to the Air India crash? After taking off from Ahmedabad airport at 1.39pm local time, the flight made a mayday call to air traffic control. But there was no response to subsequent calls made by controllers to the aircraft, Indian aviation authorities reported. According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, the signal from the plane was lost 'less than a minute after take-off'. Five minutes later, the plane crashed into a residential area in Meghani Nagar. The plane hit the rooftop of a hostel at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College, where students had been eating lunch in the dining hall. Videos showed the plane exploding into a fireball, with plumes of smoke pouring from the wreckage of the plane as firefighters tried to douse the charred remains of buildings impacted by the crash. Images from the site showed scorched walls, twisted metal, and lunch trays still on tables inside the debris-filled hostel dining room. It was unclear for hours how many people were killed, but officials said everyone on the plane died, except one, with dozens of victims from the medical college where the plane struck. Flight AI171 had been travelling to London Gatwick. But flight tracking data showed the plane was only briefly airborne before crashing close to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. What caused the crash? While it was still unclear what had caused the crash, poor maintenance, a bird strike, engine failure as well as the weather were initially being suggested as the reasons. Investigators have said they are examining possible issues with engine thrust, flap settings, and why the landing gear remained extended after take-off. A bird strike is not currently being considered a likely cause. The temperature in Ahmedabad went over 40C on Thursday and the thinner air would have made take-off more difficult, requiring higher flap settings and greater engine thrust, experts told the BBC and the New York Times. Improper flap extension during take-off could prevent a heavily loaded jet carrying passengers, long-haul fuel and operating in hot conditions from generating enough lift to get airborne. One of the strongest pieces of evidence being reviewed by investigators is a 59-second CCTV video that captured the moment the Air India flight took off and crashed in Ahmedabad. The footage, recorded from the far left of the runway near a barbed-wire fence, shows the plane gaining altitude briefly, flying flat for a few seconds, and then descending with its tail down. The descent began roughly 17 seconds after take-off. No fire is visible around the engines or elsewhere on the aircraft before impact, and the landing gear remains extended throughout the clip. It took just 33 seconds from wheels-up to the fiery crash, which killed nearly everyone on board. A former pilot told the BBC that footage of the airplane was not clear enough to determine if the flaps were correctly extended, but such an error would be 'highly unusual'. Moreover, he said, incorrect flap settings would have set off warnings. But Richard Curran, professor of sustainable aviation at City, University of London, said he had been told by multiple sources that the pilots issued a malfunction warning prior to the crash. Prof Curran, who previously spent 12 years as KLM's chair of engineering and maintenance, told The Independent: 'They actually registered a malfunction. So that means they had a technical problem', adding: 'So it was not a pilot error.' And he dismissed suggestions that multiple bird strikes could have caused dual engine failure, saying: 'These pilots are extremely well trained. They're trained for bird strike. It's one of the basic things that you go through in simulator training as a pilot.' Who was on board the plane? There were 230 passengers and 12 crew members onboard the aircraft. They included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens and one Canadian, Air India said. The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a line training captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 hours. There were 10 other crew members on board, civil aviation authorities said. Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognisable. Gujarat's former chief minister Vijay Rupani was also among the passengers. Rajkot city shut down markets on the Saturday after the crash to mourn his passing. The MP for Leicester East said she understood 'a handful of Leicester residents' were onboard the crashed flight. Shivani Raja told BBC News that her community, which has a high population of British-Gujaratis, were 'all really horrified and devastated waking up to such tragic news'. Who survived the crash? Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 people on the flight did not survive. A British national was the only person on board to miraculously escape with minor injuries. It was unclear exactly how many people were inside the building that the plane crashed into, but 34 bodies of non-passengers have been recovered. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was sat in seat 11A and walked away from the crash unaided with minor injuries. His family confirmed his survival, and the BBC said his name was confirmed in the flight manifest shared by the authorities. According to Hindustan Times, he said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.' Mr Ramesh, who has lived in the UK with his wife and child for 20 years, was in India for a few days to visit family, according to the Indian outlet. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,' Hindustan Times reported him as saying. 'Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.' His brother, Ajay, was also on the flight. A student, Bhumi Chauhan, missed the ill-fated flight by minutes. The 28-year-old business student from Bristol had been visiting Gujarat with her husband and was booked on Air India flight AI171, which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday. Ms Chauhan says she had checked in online and reached Ahmedabad airport at 12:20pm local time, just 10 minutes after boarding was due to start. "I got late because I was stuck in traffic. I was upset (after being denied boarding) and reached the airport exit when I learnt the plane had crashed," she told Indian news channel NDTV, She had travelled 200km from Ankleshwar but was delayed by city traffic. Ms Chauhan said she was disappointed when she missed her flight, but minutes later everything changed. "I was getting ready to step out of the airport when I learnt about the crash. I began shivering. My legs started trembling. I felt numb for quite some time," she said. "My Ganpati ji (Hindu god) saved me," she added. Medical college hostel struck The aircraft crashed into a hostel building at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital. 'The plane was flying very low before it crashed,' eyewitness Haresh Shah told local news agency PTI. 'As it crashed into the building, the sound was like a blast and the plane and the building caught fire.' College dean Minakshi Parikh told reporters that four students living in the hostel had died and 19 were injured. 'Two third-year students are untraceable. A doctor's wife was also killed while two relatives of other doctors were injured. Three members of a doctor's family went missing after the incident,' she said. Dhaval Gameti, president of the resident doctors' association at the college, said 50-60 people had been injured. Footage from the scene showed aircraft debris in the hostel's dining area, with some tables left with uneaten food on the plates. What is the status of investigation? Investigators have recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, which was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site and likely will lead to clues about the cause of the accident. India 's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has succeeded in extracting the data from the flight data recorder. The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations. A team of four officials from the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), with expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and flight data, is now working in Ahmedabad alongside American and Indian counterparts. "Their role is to provide additional support and expertise to the safety investigation being led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau," the government said. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata – which owns Air India – said this was one of the 'darkest days' in the group's history and promised full transparency. 'We don't know right now [what caused the crash], but we will,' he said. What is known about the Boeing aircraft? The plane involved was a Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' delivered to Air India in 2014. This was the first fatal incident involving the 787. Soon after the Dreamliner entered service in 2011, concerns over fire risk from lithium batteries led to a temporary grounding. But there was no indication yet that the crash was connected to any technical issues onboard the aircraft. More than 1,000 Boeing 787 aircraft are in service with dozens of international airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, both of which have exemplary safety records. The aircraft is described by the US manufacturer as 'the bestselling passenger widebody of all time' with some 2,000 orders from 89 customers. The planes have carried more than one billion passengers on nearly five million flights. When was the last plane crash in India? The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved the airline's low-budget arm Air India Express. The Boeing-737 overshot a 'table-top' runway at the Kozhikode International Airport in southern India, skidded off and plunged into a valley, crashing nose-first into the ground. The crash killed at least 21 people. Where can I find out information about the victims? Air India has set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information. 'Air India is giving its full cooperation to the authorities investigating this incident,' the airline said. The airline has also set up assistance centres for friends and relatives at the airports in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Gatwick to 'provide support and take care of the needs of the families and loved ones'. The centres are also facilitating travel for family members to Ahmedabad, it said on X.
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Daily Record
Wooden floors will gleam and stay dust-free with help from your morning cuppa
Keeping these popular floors shiny is a task but there'a natural way to do it. Wooden floors have become increasingly popular instead of carpet in recent years thanks to the style and convenience they add to your home. It's easier to clean up spills and stains on hardwood flooring making them perfect for households with children and pets. But keeping them dust-free and shining is another story. Wooden floors are magnets for dust and keeping them clean will extend their lifespan. Dusty floors can be particularly bad in the summer months when you can also see the build-up more thanks to light streaming in through the windows. While hardwood floors will change colour over time it's important to clean them properly to ensure they don't discolour through poor maintenance or using the wrong products. And one Facebook user has shared an 'amazing' way to repel dust by using black tea, reports The Express. Posting on the Our Old House page on Facebook, group member Janne Marlar said the hack keeps her floor 'shiny' and 'smelling amazing'. She claimed that the solution is to use black tea from around 16 to 20 used teabags. Janne wrote: 'Bless that person from the Our Old House Facebook group who suggested cleaning your hardwood floors with black tea! They look and smell amazing. '16 to 20 teabags steeped in your big soup pot until you can't see through the water. Let it cool. Pour into your mop bucket, add a little more water if you want. 'I mop with a microfiber string mop, squeezing out the majority of the water. It's the tannins in the tea that really clean and shine the wooden floors and keep them dust-free longer.' The post received over 400 comments and over 6,500 likes with many others saying they had found success with the same cleaning method. CindyandGarry Montgomery said: "I read that same post and have started using black tea on mine as well. Mine are dark walnut original to our 1919 home, and they shine up, and it is the best thing I have tried.' Kim Chambers noted: 'I use that with orange oil, which makes my old hardwood floors shine, without having all the wax, and it smells amazing.' Julie Powers exclaimed, 'I swear by black tea. Been using it on hardwood floors for 30 years.' Jess Ica added: "My mom used to do this with the hardwood flooring in my childhood home. It always looked so beautiful afterwards.' Amy Morello pointed out that the hack was something that had been around for a very long time. She said: 'The maids in big homes of the Victorian era also sprinkled used tea leaves onto the carpets, before sweeping them! It was believed to pick up more dust, as well as nullify any lingering odours.' Black tea has two benefits for your wooden floors. It absorbs moisture and also static electricity to prevent any sticky dust from clinging to wooden surfaces. And it also acts as a natural polisher to keep your floors looking shiny and spotless all summer.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
India says efforts are on to reconstruct events that caused Air India crash
NEW DELHI, June 26 (Reuters) - Efforts are underway to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the Air India plane crash this month that killed 260 people, and identify contributing factors, India's civil aviation ministry said on Thursday. The London-bound Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 787 Dreamliner crashed moments after takeoff from India's Ahmedabad city on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and the rest on ground in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. The black boxes of the plane - the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) - were recovered in the days that followed, one from the rooftop of a building at the crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16. They were transported to national capital Delhi on Tuesday, where a team led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau began extracting their data, the ministry said in a statement. "The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, memory module was successfully accessed and its data analysis of CVR and FDR data is underway," it said. The CPM is the core part of a black box that houses and protects data recorded during a crash. India said last week that it was yet to decide where the black boxes would be analysed. The data retrieved from them could provide critical clues into the aircraft's performance and any conversations between the pilots preceding the crash. The air disaster has also brought renewed attention to violations of norms by airlines in the country. India's aviation regulator said on Tuesday that multiple instances of aircraft defects reappearing were found at the Mumbai and Delhi airports - two of India's busiest. Reuters has reported that warnings were given by India's aviation regulator to Air India, which has come under increased scrutiny since the crash, including for permitting some aircraft to fly despite emergency equipment checks being overdue. The airline has also been warned for violations related to pilot duty scheduling and oversight. Air India has said it had implemented the authority's directions and was committed to ensuring adherence to safety protocols. It also said it was accelerating verification of maintenance records and would complete the process in the coming days.
