this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 day ago (19 children)

One theory circulating online is that the pilots may have accidentally retracted the flaps instead of the landing gear. Apparently that would result in kind of a flight path seen on the published videos.

While this cannot be confirmed or ruled out with the information we have, in my opinion the available videos seem to kinda support this theory. Initially the aircraft appears to take off and climb normally, but for some reason the gear is not being retracted when usually it would be retracted right after the takeoff.

Naturally the gear could be forgotten or left intentionally down if there were a dual engine failure right after takeoff, for example, but as the videos show no evidence of this, I'm more inclined to believe in simple pilot error.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Flaps are typically retracted not long after takeoff anyway, every flight I've been on has done that.

[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There are minimum airspeeds the aircraft must reach before the flaps can be safely retracted. I don't know the exact numbers, but assuming a standard flaps 5 takeoff for B787, retraction to flaps 1 would occur around 1000 ft by earliest, that's typically 20 to 30 seconds after the takeoff.

[–] kcuf2@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Also gear should probably be retracted first (though I don't actually know for certain for this aircraft)

[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Usually the gear is retracted almost immediately after takeoff, as it creates a huge amount of unnecessary drag if left out when not needed.

[–] kcuf2@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Ya that's true for multiengine in general. I just didn't know if there was any other sequencing needed for the 787 (like move flaps from 5 to 4) because I know nothing about flying such large planes.

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