Ahmedabad plane crash : 25,000 hour B777 captain here. This may have been pilot error. Raising the flaps after takeoff instead of the landing gear is my theory, and explains why the gear remained fully down. The accident photos show the L/E slats extended on the ground, while the T/E flaps are extended slightly or not at all. This cannot be the T/O configuration, and “proves” that the flaps were raised after T/O.
Raising the flaps at a speed behind the power curve would feel like a loss of power to the pilot flying, hence the “Mayday lost power” radio call. If true, FDR would confirm. It’s too early to say, but it reminds me of Northwest Flight 255 that crashed shortly after takeoff in August 1987. They discovered the flaps were not set correctly. Everyone died except a little girl.
Strange that there is a survivor in this battle, because it is critical for flaps to deploy in modern aircraft, and I see no flaps. This brings back such painful memories. Failure to open flaps occurred when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed at DTW on August 16, 1987. How could this happen again with a modern aircraft? This is not my personal opinion, aviation industry experts and many social media platforms have this type of technical commentary on the captain pilot.
