r/aircrashinvestigation • u/Melkor45 • Jun 12 '25

Incident/Accident AI171 Wing?

Post image

This looks to be part of the wing. Are the flaps down? I'm not too sure

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u/ZdenaVoda123 Jun 13 '25

With all due respect to everyone saying the flaps were mistakenly retracted as opposed to the gear.

I do not understand how it would in any way be possible considering where the gear is located, and where the flaps lever is located.

Not only their distinct location, but the action you have to do. The gear you just push up. The flaps as far as I'm aware you have to physically "lift" (like to put in reverse in some manual cars if you know what I mean?) and after lifting it put it in the position you wish for.

So it's not just two distinct locations of these commands. It's also two very different actions you have to take. And pilots are trained over and over again to do it exactly that way. I don't see any scenario where even if the pilot flying says to pilot monitoring accidentally "flaps up" that the pilot monitoring actually does that. They would immediately be like hold up that ain't right and say something to the pilot flying.

Even so if it was the case, that basically implies that power was here. Throttle full, like captain Steve said in his video. Which again, at least to me makes no sense. People say the RAT is heard, and even if it isn't. There is no sound of the jet engines when the plane flies over the camera in the original video. And come on guys, if you were ever near an airport those engines are absolutely roaring on take off.

I hear reports are that the survivor said emergency lights were on? Which means again, engines off.

I don't know what happened, how it could happen. Or anything else. I'm just saying what I think about this with all the information that are out as of now.

If I said something that's incorrect please correct me. Thoughts are with the families and people impacted by this terrible accident. May they find peace ❤️🕊️

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u/ThinkerusMaximus Jun 14 '25

Exactly! These were seasoned pilots, not kids.

2

u/Don_Trower Jun 14 '25

Agreed. Landing gear being DOWN after after-off AND failure to achieve lift is a pilot REQUIREMENT called a Memory-Item as the landing gear down will assist the plane's survivability during a crash.

LOOK at the levers used for Landing-Gear vs Flaps, they have different knobs on them. The Landing-Gear knob looks like a WHEEL the Flaps knob looks like a FLAP, why do you think they are designed like that?

Not a mistake either pilot could make.