Billy Nolen, Archer Aviation chief safety officer and former FAA acting administrator, joins ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss Thursday's Air India crash, what investigators will focus on, and more.

Ahmedabad

Billy Nolen, former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and current chief safety officer at Archer Aviation, provided insights into the investigation of the recent Air India Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad. He noted that while over 200 bodies have been recovered and the flight data recorder has been found, investigators are still in the early stages of collecting evidence and determining the cause.

Nolen explained that investigators will examine factors such as crew qualifications, aircraft maintenance, weather conditions, and flight performance, including video evidence showing the landing gear was still extended. He emphasized that commercial aviation remains highly safe globally, with robust systems in place to learn from such incidents and enhance future safety.

Former FAA acting administrator explains Air India crash investigation

Over 200 bodies recovered after an Air India flight. A Boeing 787 that was bound for London crashed right after takeoff, striking a medical school. Joining us right now is Billy Nolan. He's a former FAA acting administrator, also chief regulatory officer at Archer Aviation. Billy, thank you for being with us today. Obviously, we're just over 24 hours out from this accident. It's hard to have a real idea of what happened, but that certainly hasn't stopped speculation in other places. As somebody who understands how aviation works, who understands how these things will be investigated, what can you tell us, understanding that there's still a lot more information that will come? Well, thanks. First, Becky, thanks for having me on. I'll just say that my thoughts are with the families, with the first responders, with the Air India team. To your point, at this point, we have more questions than we have answers for. But I think it's helpful to kind of step back and think about what should have happened. And that's sort of what sort of guides the investigation itself. So you've got a qualified and current crew who's flying this flight. You've got an airplane, Boeing 787-800, that's been operated for about 11 years. You've got a hot, heavy day, if you will. This was slated to take off on roughly a nine-hour flight from Ahmadabad to London's Gatwick Airport. So as we think about all of those things, now that, of course, we hear that the black box, that the flight data recorder has been recovered, the investigators will—are there any data in the effect collection phase at the moment? And they will certainly try to get to some answers as quickly as possible. The video—there are several videos that exist of the plane. It's been heavily analyzed on social media and other places, too. I'm sure you've gotten a look at it. What's your takeaway from what you see in that video? Well, again, I think, you know, without getting into too much—any speculation at this point, what I can say, you know, you will look to performance, right? You would expect airplane is prepared for takeoff. It lifts off. Typically what happens is that once you've got a positive rate of climb, the pilot flying will call for positive rate flaps up. You would then climb out, and at some point, you start to clean up the airplane. That means that you retract the flaps and the slats, right? We see in this video that the landing gear is still in the extended down position, right? So those will be things, certainly, that the investigators will focus on. They will look very closely at performance. They'll look very closely at configuration and to see was there anything that's amiss. So those are things they can get, and certainly those are things that the flight data recorder can give you positions of the flight controls, the position of landing gear. We can obviously see in this video that it's down. So you gather all this information, and then certainly they will be able to put a complete picture together and get to a probable cause, I think, fairly quickly. I mean, this is a Boeing jet with GE aerospace engines that are on it. Air India has a very good reputation for maintenance and being able to make sure that they have upkeep and taking care of those planes. An 11-year-old plane, certainly not something that's outside the realm of where you would expect it to still be operating well. What kind of assurances can you give the general public who, you know, see this after a difficult six months and even difficult few years in the airline industry in terms of feeling safe about flying? Excellent points all around. Becky, what I would say is this, right? I believe context is always important. On any given day, globally, we're flying just short of 102,000 flights each and every day. Boeing to date has delivered nearly 1,200 Boeing 787s. They recently announced that they've flown their billionth passenger. All of that suggests that you've got a very, this is one of the most technologically advanced modern jetliners. So, you know, from a perspective of the big picture, we've got a very safe system. Now, I'm just back from Mexico City where I was attending the Association of Latin American Airlines where the airlines come together and they were discussing flight safety, they were discussing operational excellence, they were discussing training. So, these are things that aviation professionals and regulators around the world are very much focused on. To your point, we look back at every one of these unfortunate events and say, you know, what's that lesson learned? How do we continue to ensure the flying public that it is safe to fly, that our systems both here in the U.S. and abroad are robust and resilient? And certainly, we'll take every lesson from this tragic event and say, how do we, how do we prevent that from happening again in the future?

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