“He persisted with landing, despite warnings, leading to loss of 158 lives”
The Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangalore in May 2010 was caused by the failure of the pilot, Captain Zlatko Glusica, — a British national of Serbian origin — to discontinue an “un-stabilised approach” and persisting with the landing.
This has been brought out by the Court of Inquiry (CoI) report which has now been made public, nearly two years after the crash that claimed 158 lives.
The CoI, headed by the former Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale, found that the direct cause of the accident was Capt. Glusica's “failure to discontinue the un-stabilised approach and his persistence in continuing with the landing, despite three calls from the First Officer [H.S. Ahluwalia] to go around and a number of warnings from EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning systems).”
The report said the final touchdown of Boeing 737-800 on the morning of May 22, 2010, was “at about 5,200 feet from the beginning of Runway 24, leaving only about 2,800 feet to the end of the paved surface, to stop the aircraft.”
“Soon after landing, the Captain initiated a ‘rather delayed go around' or an attempted take-off, in contravention of Standard Operating Procedure laid down by the manufacturer, Boeing,” the report said. The aircraft had overshot the runway as its right wing hit the Instrument Landing System localiser structure. It then rammed the airport boundary fence and fell into a gorge.
Among recommendations to avoid such accidents was the setting up of an Independent Civil Aviation Safety Board “urgently, in view of rapid growth of aviation in the country.”
The state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800, which was inducted on January 15, 2008, had 166 passengers and a six-member crew on board the budget carrier, flight IX-812, which was coming from Dubai to Mangalore. Capt. Glusica (55) had 10,000 hours of flying experience. The runway at the Mangalore airport is situated on a hillock, which in aviation parlance is known as a table top runway.
@Rajasekhar: Dead do not talk and it is convenient to shift the
entire blame on the pilots. By selectively quoting from the report
airline management is trying to fool the public. CoI findings were
equally damning against the Air India Express management culture. It
said that "the senior management lacked cohesion. The Court was made
privy to a number of e-mails indicating a strained relationship not
conducive for efficient and safe operations." and decried the “use
of Pencil and Eraser to maintain crew schedules leads to ambiguity
and lack of transparency" obviously to divert attention away from
irregularities. It will be interesting to hear of the action
initiated to set right several irregularities pointed out. I request
The Hindu to publish the full report and travelers can decide for
themselves flying coffins called Air India Express.
I agree with the report. How can we stand by a pilot, who despite having 10,000 hours of flying experience, missed the touch down point by 5,200 feet endangering the lives of the passengers?
The safety of the the passengers and flight is the top priority for any pilot/airlines.
Blaming politicians for all our problems is fine. At the same time it is equally important to know what caused the crash and how to prevent it in the future. Changing governments or ministers does not prevent crashes.
8000 foot runway is plenty long enough for a 737-800. Landing a full mile down the runway is unexcusable. Clearly pilot error
Interestingly the court of enquiry of Mangalore crash, commended the
co-pilot. “ In the First Officer Ahluwalia was known to be
meticulous in his adherence to procedures. He was also known to be a
man of few words. He had complained in writing, his reservations
about one of the foreign captains for not following the company SOP
(Standard Operating Procedure) as well as correct CRM (Crew Resources Management) technique. The management had planned to
counsel both, the concerned captain interim, the scheduling staff
had been verbally instructed, not to pair these two pilots together
and First Officer Ahluwalia. However, the counseling had not taken
place prior to the date of accident.” Ironically Ahuluwalia
correctly identified the unstabilised approach and was helpless to
correct it as the Mangalore airport being a Table Top Airport
requiring Special Qualification, which only the Captain possessed.
The Mangalore air crash investigating committee headed by Air
Marshal BN Gokhale) Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff, after a
commendable analysis of the accident had submitted his finding on
31st Oct 2010. Extremely detailed and pain taking report apart from
blaming the Captain, has come out damningly on the management of
Air India Express ,” it was evident that the senior management
lacked cohesion. The Court was made privy to a number of e-mails
indicating a strained relationship not conducive for efficient and
safe operations“ It also recommends “setting up of an independent
Indian Civil Aviation Safety Board (ICASB), on the lines of NTSB,
USA” and decries “Currently followed use of Pencil and Eraser to
maintain crew schedules leads to ambiguity and lack of
transparency”. Shameful in the age of computers. Air India Express
has not exactly come out smelling roses. Taxpaying public are
entitled to know follow up action and fixing culpability of
individuals responsible.
the former civil aviation minister praful patel was the proximate cause for the above disaster. the run way was insufficient for a boeing 737 - 800 series landing.
praful is personally responsible for this there was nothing wrong on captain
it is the practice of the govt to put blame on pilots because he is not alive to refute or protest thecorrupt minister has to account for this mishap.
It is very easy to blame the pilot now as its nearly two years since the
accident took place. Many reports appeared in newspapers which said that
the runway was not long enough to accommodate a big aircraft like the
Boeing 737-800. The safety standards followed in India don't seem to be
on par with the developed countries. We sincerely hope that the proposed
Civil Aviation safety board will not be another white elephant and
sincerely takes the required steps and hard decisions needed to improve
Aviation safety in India.
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