'We Don't Have Runway Left': Revisiting How Pilots Were Blamed In 2 Big Boeing Crashes In India
'Sh*t, Sh*t', 'we don't have runway left' – these were the last words of pilots captured in cockpit voice recorders in the two previous worst crashes in India in the year 2020 and 2010 respectively involving the Air India Express. Detailed probes in both the cases blamed the pilots while Boeing and the airline had got a clean chit.
A total of 176 persons died in these crashes which happened during landing – the accident at the Calicut airport killed 18 in 2020, while the one at Mangalore killed 158 in 2010. The jury is still out in the latest June 12 accident involving an Air India Dreamliner at the Ahmedabad Airport during take-off, which has killed nearly 280 people, including many on the ground. Like the earlier two crashes, a Boeing aircraft is involved in this crash too.
The 2020 crash
Air-India Express Limited B737-800 aircraft VT-AXH was operating a quick return flight on sector Kozhikode-Dubai-Kozhikode under 'Vande Bharat Mission' to repatriate passengers who were stranded overseas due to closure of airspace and flight operations owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It made two approaches for landing at Kozhikode. The aircraft carried out a missed approach on the first attempt while coming into land on runway 28. The second approach was on runway 10 and the aircraft landed at 14:10:25 UTC. The aircraft touched down approximately at 4,438 ft on 8,858 ft long runway, in light rain with tailwind component of 15 knots and a ground speed of 165 knots. The aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and this ended in runway overrun. The aircraft exited the runway 10 end at a ground speed of 84 knots and then overshot the RESA, breaking the ILS antennae and a fence before plummeting down the tabletop runway.
The inquiry by the AAIB concluded that the probable cause of the accident was the non-adherence of SOP by the 'Pilot Flying' (PF), wherein, he continued an unstabilised approach and landed beyond the touchdown zone, half way down the runway, in spite of 'Go Around' call by the 'Pilot Monitoring' (PM) which warranted a mandatory 'Go Around' and the failure of the PM to take over controls and execute a 'Go Around'.
The report also said that the actions and decisions of the 'Pilot in Command' (PIC) were steered by a misplaced motivation to land back at Kozhikode to operate next day morning flight AXB 1373.
'The PIC had vast experience of landing at Kozhikode under similar weather conditions. This experience might have led to over confidence leading to complacency and a state of reduced conscious attention that would have seriously affected his actions, and decision making," the report said.
Poor (Crew Resource Management) CRM was a major contributory factor in this crash, the report said. 'As a consequence of lack of assertiveness and the steep authority gradient in the cockpit, the First Officer did not take over the controls in spite of being well aware of the grave situation," the report added.
'Shit…Shit" were the last words of the pilots (PF and PM) recorded in the cockpit voice recorder – when the aircraft was about to leave the paved surface of the runway and entered soft ground.
The 2010 crash
Pilot error was also blamed for the Air India Express plane crash at Mangalore airport in 2010, which killed 158 people.
The final inquiry report said the flight commander ignored the warnings of his co-pilot and the aircraft coming from Dubai crashed while negotiating the tricky landing at Mangalore's table-top airport and over shot it to fall into a forest.
Pilot Captain Zlatko Glusica allegedly slept for over 90 minutes during the flight due to fatigue and later did not heed three warnings given by co-pilot Capt HS Ahluwalia for taking 'a go-around" and not to land. The flight path taken was also wrong.
Last year, the Bombay High Court ruled that the family of the Serbian captain Zlatko Glusica was entitled to compensation of around Rs 4.11 crore.
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