Pieces of equipment from the doomed Air India plane which killed 241 people onboard has been recovered. Experts have now released a new theory on what could have made the plane crash.

Officials investigating the mystery of the Air India plane which plummeted and killed hundreds of people onboard are looking into whether the aircraft was overloaded.

The aircraft, which had only just set off for Gatwick, suddenly crashed into a medical college hostel after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad last Thursday. Investigators were left stunned after one passenger was named as the sole survivor of the crash.

British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh miraculously made it out alive, while 241 people onboard and 29 people on the ground were declared dead. Several theories have emerged following the disaster, with officials pinning all their hopes on learning more through the plane’s black boxes.

Specialists from based at the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are investigating the tragedy with overseas support from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing.

The Air India plane crashed on Thursday (Image: Getty Images)

Former pilot, Amit Singh, shared that examining the cockpit voice records and data from the flight is vital to uncover the truth. “The data will reveal everything,” he stressed. So far, it has been reported that both of the pilots Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder made an emergency call before the plane plunged to the ground.

Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash. The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Saturday.

Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, minister of civil aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday’s crash, reports Mail Online.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, sole survivor of the crash (Image: NARENDRA MODI YOUTUBE CHANNEL/AF)

Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Mr Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with “immediate urgency”. Investigators on Friday recovered the plane’s digital flight data recorder, or the black box, from a rooftop near the crash site.

The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The plane that crashed was 12 years old.

Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.