Biocide overdose blunder suspected in A321 dual-engine incident (2020)(www.flightglobal.com)
34 pointsby worik3 days ago4 comments
  • lxe3 days ago
    Is fuel contamination still the leading theory behind the recent Air India crash too?
    • i_am_jl3 days ago
      It's a possibility, but if it's the cause it would have to be a problem specific to only this aircraft (like the linked biocide incident) as no other aircraft experienced issues with contaminated fuel.
    • dale_huevo3 days ago
      yes, fuel contamination (with effluent probably) is still very much in play as a possible factor.

      unfortunately, there has been a lot of typical misdirection and wild statements out of India, like trying to preemptively clear the pilots of wrongdoing before the recorders have been read out.

      most of the initial reports about the flight recorders were easily disproven as the 787 does not use an FDR/CVR but a more modern type of recorder that captures more data. which supposedly India lacks the equipment and/or knowhow to download.

      the chances of an objective and transparent investigation are basically zero.

      • fakedang3 days ago
        > like trying to preemptively clear the pilots of wrongdoing before the recorders have been read out.

        Because as far as the pilots are concerned, they seem to have done everything by the book? Every experienced 787 pilot literally now states that it's very less likely it's due to a pilot error because it's a 787 - it's designed to mitigate any form of pilot error, even if a pilot decided to go full suicidal and crash it. Within the aviation community, it's also bad practice to put blame on the pilots by default - in fact thinking like yours (oh, pilot error!) is what led to crashes like the 737 Max, because you'd like to rather blame the human rather than the machine or the process.

        > most of the initial reports about the flight recorders were easily disproven as the 787 does not use an FDR/CVR but a more modern type of recorder that captures more data. which supposedly India lacks the equipment and/or knowhow to download.

        > the chances of an objective and transparent investigation are basically zero.

        I can't believe you actually stated both these sentences one after the other. Yes, India does not have the equipment to read the flight recorders on the 787, which is why the DGCA already confirmed yesterday that it's sending the recorders to the US FAA.

      • dkarl3 days ago
        > the 787 does not use an FDR/CVR but a more modern type of recorder that captures more data. which supposedly India lacks the equipment and/or knowhow to download

        I thought there was a new lab in India that was equipped to recover data from this type of flight recorder, but in this case the recorders were being sent overseas because the extensive fire damage made the recovery process especially challenging [0]?

        [0] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation...

    • rurban2 days ago
      No, batteries.
  • apical_dendrite3 days ago
    The mentour pilot YouTube channel has a very good video on this incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Qclymu2EA
  • heythere223 days ago
    (2020)
  • Havoc3 days ago
    Wild to specify that as ppm. How is a mechanic in the field even supposed to use that?