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Frank
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Ron Bartsch is a leading expert in aviation safety and chairman of Avlaw — a respected international aviation consulting company.
He said it appears the aircraft's flaps — which help increase lift on take-off and landing — do not appear to be in the right position, and the landing gear is down.
"There are some abnormalities with the video that I've seen," he told ABC NEWS Verify.
"The fact that the aircraft still appears to be with its gear down and flaps retracted at 600 feet after take-off is not the usual configuration for an aircraft.
"The aircraft would have been very close to maximum take-off weight, the ambient conditions were around 40 degrees Celsius — so they're not conditions for aircraft performance.
"The aircraft can climb with its gear down, but at a low speed like that, it would need to have extra lift generated by the flaps, so obviously in the configuration it was at the time, it wasn't able to climb," Professor Bartsch said.
He added that it is early days in the investigation but said engine failure was unlikely.
"Double engine failures is virtually something that can be completely ruled out because the chances of an engine failure in these modern aircraft is very, very remote," Professor Bartsch said.
"It really does appear that there's been some degree of human error in this catastrophe."
Guy Hirst, a career pilot and aviation educator, told the ABC that a bird strike could have caused the incident.
"Ahmedabad does suffer quite a lot from flocks of birds, and although they've been doing quite a lot at the airport to try and reduce the possibilities, that is always a possibility."
Another expert agreed that pilot error could be the blame.
"This is indicative of the pilots pulling up the flaps instead of the landing gear after take-off," former pilot and aviation analyst James Nixon told ABC Melbourne.
Aviation expert Keith Tonkin told ABC News Breakfast, the landing gear being left down shows the pilots were occupied.
"The fact that the landing gear was left down probably indicates that the pilots were pretty busy trying to deal with whatever those circumstances were," he said.
According to Reuters, air traffic control said the plane made an "mayday" call — signalling an emergency — just after take-off, but after that point, there was no response from the aircraft.
Authorities are now working to find the aircraft's black box — an on-board crash-protected recording device, which captures aircraft data and sound from the cockpit.
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