When the co-pilot was instructed to retract the landing gear, Steve claimed he had a suspicion that there had been a very basic mistake in the cockpit that had disastrous results.

He said: “Here’s what I think happened, again folks this is just my opinion. I think the pilot flying said to the co-pilot said ‘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 airplane stopped flying.”

Steve stated that the flight would rapidly lose altitude and airspeed due to the elevated flaps, which he believes the pilot would have found difficult to manage.

The 787’s composite wings would typically bend during takeoff as