Investigators have announced plans to conduct interviews with pilots and cabin crew who operated the aircraft the week before

A pilot has suggested that a critical mistake by the co-pilot might have led to the devastating Air India Flight AI171 disaster, which claimed 241 lives aboard the aircraft and additional casualties on the ground.

Captain Steve Scheibner, a former American Airlines pilot, has proposed that the co-pilot could have mistakenly activated the flap controls when instructed to raise the landing gear, potentially triggering the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fatal descent.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Scheibner said: “I think the pilot flying said to the co-pilot, ‘gear up’ at the appropriate time.

“I think the co-pilot grabbed the flap handle and raised the flaps, instead of the gear. If that happened, this explains a lot of why this aeroplane stopped flying.”

The plane crash landed, killing all but one person on board

Wreckage of the plane following the crash

Under normal circumstances, aircraft wings flex upward as aerodynamic forces generate the lift required for ascent.

However, if the flaps were mistakenly raised whilst the aircraft was still at low speed and altitude, the sudden loss of lift would make it impossible for the pilots to maintain controlled flight.

Aviation specialists studying the footage have noted anomalies in the aircraft’s configuration during its ascent.

Marco Chan, a former pilot and senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University, told the BBC: “That would point to potential human error if flaps aren’t set correctly. But the resolution of the video is too low to confirm that.”