


An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner blew up on impact as it stalled off the departure end of a runway in Ahmedabad. The plane slammed into a doctor's office, presumably killing all 242 passengers aboard and the crew. Casualties on the ground will likely end up ballooning as well.
Multiple videos of the crash and aftermath have now been released. This is the first 787 to crash since its first flight in 2009.
The first thing I noticed was the absence of takeoff flaps as they lifted off. That would also mean the slats on the front of the wing weren't out. If we're speculating on a cause, that seems to be the best guess right now. Can you take off without flaps, even in a 787? Theoretically, with enough airspeed and runway, you could, but given the point at which they left the runway, they were probably flying speeds that assumed the flaps were out.
You can see the plane stalling during the immediate climb out, and the pilots continue to pull back until it impacts the ground. That would technically be the wrong reaction, as you should lower the nose in a stall, but it probably wouldn't have changed anything considering the lack of altitude. We'll have to wait for further investigation to find out if the flaps were left up due to pilot error or if some kind of mechanical failure occurred.
This is a developing story.