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Title: Boeing 787's Emergency-Power System Likely Active Before Air India
Crash

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/18/1759...

Investigators believe Air India Flight 171 had an emergency-power generator
operating when it crashed last week, raising questions about whether the
plane's engines functioned properly during takeoff. WSJ: The preliminary
finding [non-paywalled source], according to people familiar with the probe,
gives investigators a new line of inquiry as they study a crash that killed
all but one of the plane's passengers. In all, at least 270 people died
following the crash, including some on the ground in the western Indian city
of Ahmedabad. The emergency system is known as a ram air turbine. It is a
small propeller that drops from the bottom of the 787 Dreamliner's fuselage
to serve as a backup generator. Engines normally produce electricity for an
aircraft and help run its flight-control systems. The power generated by the
RAT can enable crucial aircraft components to function. The system can deploy
automatically in flight if both engines have failed or if all three hydraulic
system pressures are low, according to an airline's Boeing 787 manual
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It can also deploy if cockpit
instruments lose power or problems emerge with the aircraft's electric motor
pumps. Pilots can manually deploy the RAT if needed. The most common
occurrence is when a pilot thinks that both engines failed, according to
Anthony Brickhouse, a U.S.-based aerospace safety consultant. Engine failures
can result from a variety of causes, including bird strikes or problems with
fuel.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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