Mangalore crash: Captain ignored co-pilot's plea to abort landing

New Delhi: The horrific Air India Express crash in Mangalore on May 22 that killed 158 people could have possibly been averted had the expat commander heeded his Indian co-pilot's advice. Records of the conversation between the pilots and ATC has shown that co-pilot H S Ahluwalia more than once urged Captain Zlatko Glusica not to land and instead go around.
Importantly, Ahluwalia's warning had come well before the aircraft had descended below decision height - the critical level at or before which a final decision on whether to land or go around is to be taken - said highly placed sources. Ahluwalia, who was based in Mangalore and had landed there 66 times, voiced his concern when the aircraft was about 800 feet high, they added.
"Ahluwalia warned at least twice against landing and urged his commander to go around. He had probably realized the aircraft was either too fast or too high on approach - indicating unstable approach - and would not be able to stop safely on the table-top Mangalore runway. In such situations, going around is a standard operating procedure which enables the aircraft to land safely in second attempt," said a source at ATC.
But the warning went in vain and the aircraft did not go around. It landed, only to crash and fall off the cliff from this table-top runway.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has guidelines for cockpit resource management (CRM) that makes it mandatory for commanders to listen to their comparatively less experienced co-pilots as they may also have something valid to say.
Sources said preliminary probe is indicating that the crew realized they may not be able to stop in the remaining airstrip and attempted to take off again. But it was too late by then. A Boeing 737-800 can stop in 4,500-5,000 feet. The Mangalore runway is 8,000 feet long and even if the pilots had overshot the touchdown point by 2,000 feet, there was enough length left to stop.
31/05/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

Read More

For tough airfields, follow set rules

Chandigarh: The crash of an Air India aircraft while landing at the “table-top” Mangalore airport located atop a hill has focused attention on other airfields where operations are relatively difficult.
While a large number of such airfields, referred to as “critical” in aviation parlance, exist across India, there are three in this region, at Leh, Shimla and Kullu. Conducting flights from these places is more challenging on account of topography, size and climatic conditions. Though tricky, operations to these fields need not be dangerous as it is a matter of sticking to the book.
Shimla is a classic example of a table-top airfield in the region, with a runway length of just about 4,000 feet and steep falls into the valley on either end. On the other hand, Kullu is located in a deep valley with the Beas meandering close to both ends of its 5,000-foot-long runway. Both these airstrips cater to light aircraft only and operations are possible only during good weather.
While Leh has a long runway of over 10,000 feet catering to heavy aircraft like Boeings and IL-76, it is a unidirectional airfield where landing and take-off is possible only from one direction. The approach is extremely tricky, as aircraft have to descend between high mountains into the Indus valley and approach the runway between mountains on the left and a hillock with a monastery atop it on the right. Dead ahead of the flight path are mountains again.
Srinagar is also a table-top airport, but its 12,000-foot-long runway and large distance from surrounding hills give aircraft a wide safety margin. Similarly, the Gaggal airstrip in Kangra, though short with just 3,900 feet of tarmac for small aircraft to land on, is not unduly affected by mountains.
Guidelines on operating parameters are laid down by the Directorate-General Civil Aviation. Airlines have their own policy rules on operating parameters, though they all need to fall within the DGCA rules.
30/05/10 Vijay Mohan/The Tribune

Read More

Air safety a major concern at Shimla airport

Shimla: Air safety at Shimla airport, situated at Jubberhati at an altitude of 2,196 meters above the sea level, is a challenging task, considering that it is among the three table-top airports in the country. While talking to HimVani over phone, Director Tourism and Special Secretary (Monitoring and Coordination), Arun Kumar Sharma, himself admitted that in view of the air-crash at Manglore, negligible road connectivity in the the periphery of the 3,800-feet-long airstrip due to hilly terrain is a matter of concern.
Responding to a query raised by HimVni, Sharma said that in case of any eventuality the task would be uphill for the authorities to carry out a search and rescue operation. Pushing the ball in the court of Airport Authority of India (AAI), Sharma stated that the matter is serious and airport authority is expected to act appropriately. He said that so far their is has been no written request on behalf of AAI, which is looking after the flight operation at Jubberhati Airport, “but if they would pursue the matter with us with regards to extension of connectivity the state government and the department would positively act on their request.”
When contacted at Jubberhati airport, an official of AAI told HimVani, on the condition of anonymity, that they have arrangements of fire fighting at the strip level but the left bank of the airport is unconnected so far. It is learnt that the Directorate General (DG) of Civil Aviation has sought information regarding the guidelines for rescue operation in case of any eventuality.
30/05/10 ML Verma/Himavani

Read More

Chennai's new runway raises safety fears

The recent crash of the Air India jet in Mangalore which claimed 158 lives has raised safety concerns about the new secondary runway at Chennai’s Anna International Airport. Airport sources told this newspaper that the authorities have paid little heed to the large amount of rubber deposit on the runway that stretches across the Adyar River.
Rubber deposit on a tarmac can lead to a plane skidding out of control while taking off or landing. “No safety measures have been taken while laying the rubber during the construction of the secondary runway. This has resulted in uneven rubber deposits,” said Capt. A. Ranganathan, a leading aviation expert.
“As it is the first runway being built across a river in the country, the Airports Authority of India should have ensured the highest levels of safety were followed in the construction.” However, a senior Airports Authority of India official in charge of ground operations claimed that there is no need to worry about the rubber deposit and that it is rain that poses a major threat.
“Not only does operating aircraft in heavy rain increase the operational danger, but there are many loopholes and relaxations in Indian aviation guidelines which need to be addressed urgently,” he said.
31/05/10 Deccan Chronicle

Read More

Indigo pilot at Jammu airport averts repeat of Mangalore

Jammu: A major air tragedy was averted on Sunday, when an Indigo airlines flight from Srinagar aborted landing at Jammu airport and became air borne again. This incident took place at around 1.55 pm.
The aircraft managed to land successfully in a second attempt.
123 passengers were on board the Indigo airlines flight from Srinagar to Delhi via Jammu.
At the time of landing, the aircraft flew beyond the landing area on the runway. When the pilot realized this he took off again, without letting the plane touch the ground and averted what may have been a major air tragedy.
Sources at the airport said, “The aircraft over-flew from the actual landing area and the pilot of the aircraft showed his extraordinary skills and was able to save the lives of people when he managed to take off again after seeing that he had over flew (sic) from the actual landing zone."
Rejecting the claims of Indigo airlines that ATC cancelled the clearance for landing at the last moment, an ATC official, requesting anonymity, said, “We had given the clearance to the aircraft for landing. Rest what happened, the Indigo airlines better knows.”
30/05/10 Amir Karim Tantray/Hindustan Times

Read More

Air India to set up cell to help families of victims

National carrier Air India will set up a cell at its office at Lalbagh here to help the families of the May 22 air crash victim get death certificates, said Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa.
Mr. Muniyappa, the Prime Minister's emissary to oversee relief operations, told journalists on Sunday that officials manning the cell would work with the Revenue and Police departments.
Sudhir G. Amin, Assistant General-Manager (Quality Management System), Air India, who was present at the press conference, said the preparations were on to set up the cell and that it could start functioning in a day or two.
The Minister said Air India had so far distributed an interim compensation of Rs.4.75 crore in the case of 51 deceased people and one survivor Ismail Abdulla Puttur. The survivor got a relief of Rs.2 lakh. Air India had announced an interim relief of Rs.10 lakh for adults and half that amount for children.
Mr. Muniyappa reiterated Air India's decision to hold another sitting by its advocates and financial management team to disburse compensation to other survivors and kin of other victims on June 3 and 4.
30/05/10 The Hindu

Read More

Air India suffers latest plane malfunction in Oman

A runway at Muscat International Airport was temporarily closed this week, following a rejected takeoff by an Air India plane.
The troubled airline’s Airbus A320-200, which was scheduled to fly from the Oman capital to Kozhikode in India, had 132 passengers onboard when one of the engine's Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) indication went beyond limits.
A number of tyres deflated during deceleration and the aircraft came to a safe stop on the runway, according to a report in the Aviation Herald.
A maintenance check later detected that major repair work was required on the brakes and the flight was therefore postponed.
31/05/10 Robeel Haq/arabain Supply Chain

Read More

Air Crash - Remaining DNA Test Reports Expected on Monday

Mangalore: Union minister for state in the railways, K H Muniayppa, told the reporters here on Sunday May 30, that all the remaining 12 DNA test reports of the air crash victims are expected to be received on Monday May 31. He was addressing a press conference after holding a review meeting with the officials about the distribution of relief to the crash victims and other related tasks.
“As soon as the DNA test reports are received, the bodies will be released to the relatives of the concerned. If the bodies remain unidentified and unclaimed even after the receipt of the reports, they will be cremated by the district administration, after consulting the leaders of all the religions as per rules,” he explained.
Muniyappa appreciated the police department headed by the city police commissioner, district administration, and the local citizens for tirelessly working to help the victims. He said that the district administration and policemen deserve full marks for the efforts made by them, feeling that small things like the confusion over the handing over the body of a child to some others are bound to happen in relief operations of such a magnitude. He revealed that a single window counter has been opened at the Lalbagh office of Air India for issuing death certificates of the air crash victims, where documents will be properly verified before issuance of the certificates.
31/05/10 Daijiworld.com

Read More

12 Air India passengers stranded

New Delhi: Several passengers of a Hyderabad-bound Air India flight weren’t allowed to board the aircraft Sunday morning due to “overbooking” by the airline.
The passengers said IC 942 left at its scheduled time of 10 am, leaving behind 12 passengers who had valid tickets.
“I had booked my ticket in April but was still denied a seat. I had an important exam in Hyderabad and was forced to buy the ticket of another airline,” Tripti Nashire, an MBA student, said.
The passengers were asked to wait for more than six hours to be accommodated in the 4.30 p.m evening flight.
31/05/10 Sidhartha Roy/Hindustan Times

Read More

Snag delays SpiceJet flight

Mumbai: For passengers of the Spicejet flight from Varanasi to Mumbai via Delhi, it was a harrowing experience this morning. They alleged that the flight from Delhi was delayed for two hours, but neither did the airline inform them of the reason, nor did it provide any food or water.
The flight departed from Varanasi at 4.15 pm. It was scheduled to leave Delhi for Mumbai at 6.45 pm. However, due to a technical snag in the plane, the passengers had to wait and were later shifted to another aircraft. The flight finally left at 8.50 pm and reached Mumbai at 11.10 pm.
Angry passengers blamed the airline squarely.
31/05/10 Kranti Vibhute/MiD DAY

Read More

VIP flights force 3 jets to land with no fuel to spare

Chennai: Three days after the Mangalore aircrash, three planes that had been diverted from Delhi airport on account of VIP movement, had a narrow shave when they all but ran out of fuel above Jaipur airport. The three flights had more than 450 passengers on board at the time.
Wednesday's Jetlite flight JLL 108 from Mumbai landed with just enough fuel to remain airborne for three minutes. The Mumbai-Delhi Kingfisher flight IT 300 landed just 10 minutes before its fuel tank ran dry. Jet Airways 9W 2357 from Chennai made it onto the runway with fuel for just 13 minutes of flying time. Both Jet planes were Boeing 737s and carried 192 and 174 people each.
The Kingfisher plane was an Airbus 330 and had 158 people on board. Wednesday saw 11 flights diverted to Jaipur, Chandigarh and Lucknow, even as 20 others were forced to circle Delhi airport for an hour starting 9am. The airport was closed because of President Pratibha Patil's flight to China and Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdimunha-medov's flight to Agra.
The tension built up for planes queuing to land at Jaipur as challenging weather - gusts of wind and a duststorm - worsened conditions already difficult because of the absence of approach radar to monitor flight movement.
The pilots have filed 'flight safety reports' detailing the emergency situation to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
"The Kingfisher flight which first declared fuel emergency was allowed to land. The Jet Airlines flight, which had only 10 minutes of fuel left, declared emergency next, but it gave way to a Jetlite flight which radioed an emergency declaration," said a source.
30/05/10 Arun Ram/Times of India

Read More

M'lore airport runway will be extended: Praful

New Delhi: A week after an Air India flight crashed in Mangalore killing a 158 people, the Civil Aviation Minister has given an assurance that the length of the Mangalore airport runway and the spillover area will be increased to meet international norms.
"Whatever that has to be learnt from the Mangalore crash and has to be improved upon will be done. In fact, we have already taken a decision to extend the runway from 8,000 to 9,000 feet," says Patel.
Speaking to Karan Thapar on the Devil's Advocate, Praful Patel adds that the lessons learnt from the Mangalore incident will be applied to airports across India to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
However, Patel has defended the decision to construct the airport on a hilltop and says that the length of the runway is in conformity with the mandate that required runways to be 7,500 feet in length.
30/05/10 IBN Live

Read More

No lessons learnt from M'lore tragedy?

The Mangalore air tragedy leaves one big question unanswered — how safe is flying in India? While a few may dismiss the notion, saying aircrashes are a worldwide phenomenon, in reality, the Indian aviation sector faces turbulent weather. While the world over, the management of civil aviation is classified and functions autono-mously under different heads such as safety audits, operations, regulations and so on, in India, the directorate general of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the last word on the subject.
In 2006, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), an arm of the United Nations looking into safety globally was extremely critical of the standard operation procedures (SOPs), listing India as the worst on "technical personnel qualification and training’’.
The ICAO after-safety audit had issued 70 key recommendations for operating civilian aircraft in India in October 2006 under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). The report was an indictment of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. To date, 16 recommendations are yet to be implemented. The DGCA’s commitment to safety is reflected in its admission in 2008 that India has only three inspectors for 10 commercial airlines and 600 planes. Sources in the ministry of civil aviation say the DGCA unwillingness to comply with the remaining findings is dangerous. “Air navigation services, aerodromes, procurement of accident investigation and aerodrome kits, licensing of aerodromes and enhancement of manpower are some of the areas that need serious attention. While there has been a major overhaul of the aviation sector in the recent past, reforms still need a major thrust on the safety aspects,’’ said a senior official in the ministry.
30/05/10 Deccan Chronicle

Read More

They will live in our memories forever

Mangalore: Memories of victims of IX-812 crash and those who survived India's worst aviation disaster in little over a decade is likely to be perpetuated forever in the form of a memorial being planned for them by Air India. While it is early days as far as this idea (of setting up a memorial) is concerned, the management of Air India has warmed up to the idea and an official announcement is expected from AI HQ in the near future.
Harpreet A De Singh, general manager (Quality Management System), Air India and its emergency response coordinator told reporters here on Saturday that the national carrier is alive to the idea and will announce its plans once it is finalised. Likewise, AI has also planned to hold prayer meet in memory of the victims on June 22 to coincide with first month anniversary of the incident. The venue and time will be decided soon, she said.
Acknowledging the fact that the crash has traumatised a whole section of people involved either directly or otherwise, she said various trauma-counselling sessions for those affected is in the pipeline.
29/05/10 Times of India

Read More

“Civil Aviation Policy Is Delhi-Centric; Other Airports Are Neglected”

Captain A. Ranganathan has flown for three domestic airlines and has work experience with four international ones. He represents India at international forums on flight safety. In a conversation with Outlook, he talks about the safety problems impacting airline companies. Excerpts:

Do different aspects of flight safety need upgradation?
Training standards have deteriorated. The regulator and the airlines need to understand that if trainers are bad, the product will be worse. At present, the DGCA safety audit of airlines is not being done regularly and with transparency. Alcoholism among crew should also be brought down, with strict punitive action.

Are airlines cutting corners for commercial benefits?
Definitely. Till 2008, they were doing this blatantly as the DGCA gave waivers. We’re fortunate there were no fatal accidents due to violations of flight duty time limitations. Many contract pilots are violating the rest period rules.

Does the ATC need upgradation to handle the increasing air traffic?
ATC definitely needs upgradation. Unfortunately, the civil aviation policy in India is Delhi-centric. The airports in the rest of the country get stepmotherly treatment. The manpower shortage among controllers is bound to affect safety. They have no duty time limits.
29/05/10 Outlook India.com

Read More

Rs 2.25 cr compensation disbursed so far

Mangalore: Legal solicitors of Air India and its financial management team will be back in the city for one and a half days from June 3 to take forward the process of making payment of interim compensation and dealing with paper work of insurance claims of victims and survivors of IX-812 crash. The national carrier in the first phase of this process held since Friday handled 43 cases, disbursing Rs 2.25 crore as interim compensation.
General manager (Quality Management System), Air India Harpreet Singh took pains to explain to reporters here that the final compensation amount that kin of victims would receive is not a fixed amount and would vary in individual cases. "We (Air India) will be guided by Montreal Convention that concerns compensation for victims of air disasters," she said adding the solicitors and the financial team will take a final call on it.
A majority of those who received the interim compensation amount (Rs 10 lakh for those above 12 years, and Rs 5 lakh for those below 12) were from northern Kerala districts. She said Calicut office has not received any settlement claims. Most kin of victims are approaching the Mangalore help desk to get their claims settled, she said adding interim compensation would be adjusted with final insurance to given by insurance firms.
29/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Govt abandons Tawang airport plan

New Delhi: The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) has abandoned its plans to build a civilian greenfield airport at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh after the Union government felt it would be too close to the Sino-Indian border.
“AAI will not construct an airport at Tawang. The government has made it clear that it would be too close to the Chinese border,” top government aviation sources confirmed to this newspaper. “As per the rules, no civilian airport should be built in the area which is less than 70 km from the Sino-Indian border. Tawang fell in that range. So, the Union government felt it was not advisable,” they said.
Two years ago, AAI had conducted a detailed feasibility study for the construction of an airport at Tawang. “It was found that the construction of an airport there was feasible. It would have been a viable proposition as it is a popular tourist destination,” sources said. However, it is going ahead with its move to construct another greenfield civilian airport at Itanagar, the state capital.
30/05/10 Sridhar Kumaraswami/Asian Age

Read More

CNS infrastructure at airports neglected: AAIOA

Mumbai: Officers of the Airports Authority of India have accused the management of neglecting issues relating to Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure for a long time at airports across the country.
Airports Authority of India Officers' Association (AAIOA) in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, has said that despite several new airports coming up and additional CNS facilities being added, manpower has not been augmented by the management for a "long time".
CNS personnel look after the sensitive radar, communication and other navigational systems of the Air Traffic Services and provide navigation services over the Indian airspace.
30/05/10 Press Trust of India

Read More

'Expedite process of issuing death certificates'

Mangalore: The state government in general, and chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in particular should have done more to help victims of IX-812 flight that crashed at Bajpe airport, senior Congress leader B Janardhan Poojary said here on Saturday. The victims are facing myriad problems including obtaining death certificates of their kin, while others are still waiting to claim the bodies of the dear ones.
The CM should direct the authorities to expedite the process of issuing death certificates, which is essential for families to claim compensation, he said, adding that the respective district administrations too should be proactive in this regard.
30/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Government to enforce checks on airline cost cuts at expense of safety

With the Mangalore aircrash in mind, the government is preparing detailed rules and guidelines to ensure that loss-making airlines do not cut costs on safety front while trying to reduce their financial burden, official sources said.
If an airline does not meet these rules and procedures, after they come into effect, its Air Operator’s Permit (license to run air operations) as also future expansion of fleet and operations, could be affected, the sources warned.
With mounting losses, many Indian carriers have started reducing flights, laying off employees and rationalising their route structure. There have also been cases where leased aircraft of certain private carriers have been taken over by lessors or airlines denied any credit on lifting of jet fuel from oil marketing firms.
Noting that some airlines have been in distress over financial or operational issues, the government is trying to “ensure that safety oversight functions are not affected“.
They said the “unfavourable trends” being witnessed in some of the airline operators’ financial conditions could be identified by factors like lay-offs, delays in paying salaries, reduction of safe operating standards, inadequate maintenance of aircraft, shortage of supplies and spares or sale of aircraft or other major equipment.
30/05/10 The Hindu

Read More

AI flight delayed by 9 hours due to snag

Chennai: Passengers travelling from Mumbai to Chennai by Air India Express flight were put to hardship after the plane was delayed by nine hours. The flight which was scheduled to leave at 6 pm on Friday left around 3 am on Saturday.
Air India (AI) officials said shortly before the flight, IX-206, with 159 passengers was about to leave, the staff discovered a technical snag. As maintenance staff worked on rectifying the fault, the flight was rescheduled for 9pm.
Passengers who were waiting with the hope of leaving by 9pm had to put up with further delay caused due to flight duty time-limitation of the crew. The airlines got busy with the task of arranging a fresh set of crew members. This caused a a delay of another six hours. The flight finally left Mumbai for Chennai around 3am on Saturday.
30/05/10 Times of India

Read More

K'taka CM urges for Air India flight service to Mysore

Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today urged Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to direct Air India (AI) to start flight operation to Mysore Airport which was inaugurated recently. In a letter to the Minister, Mr Yeddyurappa said the flight operation may be introduced from Mumbai and Delhi as well as other important cities of the country.
30/05/10 Mangalorean.com

Read More

Flight delay triggers protest at Kochi airport

Nedumbassery: The passengers at the Kochi international airport turned restive when Abu Dhabi bound Air India Express flight was delayed for 17 hours on Saturday.
The flight, scheduled to leave for Abu Dhabi at 9.25 p.m. on Friday, reached the airport at 11.45 p.m. on Saturday.
The service was temporarily suspended owing to some technical snag.
Around 160 passengers who had completed all travel formalities were accommodated in the nearby hotels, as the flight was rescheduled to resume service on Saturday morning.
30/05/10 ExpressBuzz

Read More

Survivors of AI flight crash recouping well, say doctors

Mangalore: All eight survivors of the Air India Express flight crash are responding well to treatment at various hospitals here, doctors treating them said today.
Eight of the 166 passengers on board the Boeing 737-800 flight from Dubai had a miraculous escape after the aircraft crashed and caught fire yesterday while landing at the Bajpe airport here.
Among the injured, Bangladeshi national Sabrina Haq and Umer Farooq (26) are recuperating at A J Hospital while three others are being treated at SCS Hospital, one each in KMC Hospital, Unit Hospital and KS Hegde hospital.
All are responding well to treatment, hospital officials said.
22-year-old Sabrina, who is doing her final year MBBS at Kasturba Medical College Hospital at nearby Manipal, underwent surgery yesterday for fracture in her left leg and multiple cuts on her forearms and scalp, Dinesh Kadam of A J Hospital said.
Umer Farooq, hailing from nearby Ullal, was seated in the middle row. Sensing danger as the plane plunged down, he unfastened his seat belt and managed to jump from the aircraft after pushing aside another man.
The condition of Farooq, who suffered severe burns on his face and legs, is stable, he said, adding he might be operated on later.
23/05/10 Zee News

Read More

Mangalore Plane Crash: Court of Inquiry Next Week

ew Delhi: The Centre is likely to constitute next week a Court of Inquiry into the Mangalore air crash while it set up on Friday a Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) to strengthen aviation safety environment.
The Court of Inquiry is likely to be headed by a serving or a former high court judge and will comprise two assessors with aviation background. The assessors will be experts in engineering and operations and will help the Court look at the crash from various angles. It would be handed over all the material evidences collected from the crash site by the Inspector of Accidents, appointed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The Civil Aviation Ministry said on Friday that CASAC would be headed by the Director General of Civil Aviation and will comprise 28 members drawn from aviation sub-sectors such as airlines (both public and private), flight operations, airworthiness, operations etc.
Representatives of ICAO (International civil aviation organization), FAA (Federation of Air Safety of the USA), Boeing, Airbus and other organisations will be special invitees. The Council will have a term of one year.
The Council will advise DGCA in areas of operations of aircraft such as commercial and general aviation, aerodromes and heliports, air navigation services, air operator certification, airworthiness of aircraft including maintenance, certification of aeronautical products, and human performance and training. It would also review the existing regulatory framework and provide recommendations for strengthening aviation safety.
28/05/10 DHNS/Daijiworld.com

Read More

Air India Crash A Hundred Wrongs Later

Seconds after television channels beamed footage of the air India express flight that crashed after landing in Mangalore, killing 158 passengers, a seasoned aviation expert called his friends in the directorate General of civil aviation (dGca) and hollered: “Had you listened to me, this crash could have been averted.”
Chennai-based a ranganathan was referring to a 2006 audit by the International civil aviation organisation (Icao) in which he and others had sifted through reams of documents and pinpointed hundreds of safety violations. The violations had taken place due to substandard qualifying norms and training of air technical personnel. Yet, no one in the DGCA or its parent body, the Ministry of civil aviation, took notice of the report that identified the crisis zones in the rapidly growing aviation industry. Worse, national Geographic channel, which had shown interest in producing programmes on those zones was politely told to back off.
“Very few in India understand air safety, which is totally distinct from air security,” Ranganathan told Tehelka in a telephonic interview. He should know. for although India’s last major crash occurred nearly a decade ago in 2000, there has been a steady rise in the number of near mid-air collisions. Three were reported just last year from Mumbai airport, while five people were killed in delhi in 2008 by airport vehicles on the tarmac. as for smaller violations, those are not even taken cognisance of by the DGCA and the airport authority of India (AAI).
“An alert India could have averted this disaster,” argues Kapil Kaul, a top aviation expert who heads the delhi-based centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, hinting at inadequately trained inspectors for the airlines. But the million-dollar question is: who will bell the cat? The Mangalore crash is India’s worst since 1996, when a mid-air collision between two passenger planes in Charkhi-Dadri, 125 km from Delhi, killed 349 people. There was a time when delhi had just three inspectors for 10 commercial airlines and 600 planes — well below the global requirement. Though their numbers have gone up since, most of the new entrants are inadequately trained. Moreover, lapsed inspections since 2005 have created a backlog that may take years to clear.
Much the same is true of the pilots, most of whom are poorly trained. Meanwhile, there has been a five-fold increase in the passenger load. Many airlines that hired foreign pilots (some 600) are now being told to replace them with Indians, but nobody in the government has paused to consider the logistics. How long will it take to find efficient replacements? nobody has the answer to that.
29/05/10 Shantanu Guha Ray/Tehelka.com

Read More

India will send black box to US

New Delhi: The black box and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which hold the key to investigations into the tragic May 22 Mangalore Air India crash, would be sent to USA, where it would be decoded.
Top sources in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) — the civil aviation safety regulator — said they had decided to use the services of the best available lab in the world.
“We don’t want to take any chances. We have decided to send the black box and CVR to the best lab in USA. Certain formalities need to be completed before this can be done and we are in the process of completing them,” a DGCA official said.
Sources said the laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an autonomous agency of the US government, could be used for this purpose. A three-member team of the NTSB is already in Delhi coordinating closely with the DGCA team probing the case.
28/05/10 Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

Read More

Why your flights aren’t safer

Mumbai: The air traffic control (ATC) official who averted the collision between a Jet Airways flight and an Indigo aircraft on Wednesday had a slice of luck. Spotting the Indigo plane from the ATC tower located a few hundred metres away was not easy, especially because the airfield was pitch dark.
As in this case, lack of coordination between air and ground traffic control was the common factor in the past few near-mishaps. Simply put, a plane on the tarmac stood in the way of a plane about to land or vice versa.
On April 20, a Kingfisher flight to Bhavnagar carrying 30 had to abort take-off because a GoAir flight that had just landed was late in vacating the runway. Similarly, a Kingfisher flight cancelled take-off because an Air India flight landed on the same runway last October.
Air safety experts feel that a Surface Movement Radar (SMR) would make the ATC’s work simpler by ensuring proper coordination between ground and air traffic.
A Directorate General of Civil Aviation preliminary report on Wednesday’s incident also recommended installation of the SMR. The radar can capture anything, from a dog to a jumbo jet, moving on the tarmac even during low visibility. “It makes traffic management in the air and on the ground easy,” said MG Jhunghare, general manager, ATC (western region).
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has procured the radar but it is lying wrapped in boxes because officials are struggling to find a suitable spot to install it.
29/05/10 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

Read More

Dublin Airport woos Air India

Dublin Airport is in advanced talks with Air India in a bid to become the airline’s European hub, which could see more transatlantic flights from Ireland.
It is believed that talks are ongoing between the two parties, but an announcement is likely to be around a month away.
Air India is considering Dublin as a hub for US-bound flights. Other European airports are also in contention, however, such as Copenhagen, Denmark and Vienna, Birmingham and Barcelona.
Air India would likely use the new Terminal 2 which is due to open in November. This would enable Air India’s passengers to clear US immigration and customs in Dublin. A spokesman for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) declined to comment.
Bloxham stockbroker Joe Gill said any new business at Dublin Airport would be a welcome boost, given the decline in capacity and traffic over the past two years.
"The new terminal and pre-clearance for US immigration are attractive to Air India," he said.
Air India is believed to be looking for an airport in Europe that’s cheaper to operate than its current hub in Frankfurt.
A civil aviation ministry official has been quoted as saying the airline’s chairman and managing director, Arvind Jadhav, and senior civil aviation ministry officials have already inspected Dublin Airport.
Dublin has a key advantage over other airports as it is the only European airport where passengers can clear immigration for the US.
29/05/10 Niamh Hennessy/Irish Examiner

Read More

AI flight lands under emergency condition at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: A Dubai-bound Air India flight from Calicut, with 84 passengers and eight crew on board, made a landing under emergency condition in Mumbai today due to a technical snag in the aircraft, airport officials said.
The plane was diverted to Mumbai and landed under emergency conditions following a suspected hydraulic failure, they said. An Air India spokesperson said the plane made a normal landing and another aircraft was arranged to take the passengers to the destination.
"Full emergency was declared at 11.45 am for the Air India flight IC 528 from Calicut to Dubai. The flight landed at 12.10 pm and full emergency was withdrawn at 12.17 pm," the spokesperson said.
28/05/10 Press Trust Of India/Hindustan Times

Read More

Civic Condolence Programme Held at Mangalore Airport

Mangalore: The district administration and airport authority jointly organized a civic condolence programme at the airport in Bajpe here on Thursday May 27.
District in-charge minister Krishna J Palemar lighted the lamp in the presence of inspector general of police (western range) Gopal B Hosur, police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh and Air India regional director Krishnan, who paid homage to the deceased victims of May 22 air crash on behalf of the gathering.
Addressing reporters, Palemar said that in all 158 lives were lost and that Chief Minister B S Yedurappa has announced Rs 2 lac as a relief fund to aid crash victims’ families
Police department paid respect to the victims through guard of honour. Two minutes of silent praye too was observed by the gathering.
Priests from different religions comprising Hindu, Christian, Jain, Muslim and Sikh, respectively prayed for the repose of the departed soul. The flower bouquets and wreath too were placed as a mark of respect to the deceased.
27/05/10 Daijiworld.com

Read More

Blaming pilot immoral: Samiti

Udupi: Nagarjuna Virodhi Horata Samithi ridiculed the accusations holding the pilot of ill fated Air India Express responsible for the mishap.
"The disastrous crash has caused several suspicions. It is really immoral to blame the pilot for the tragedy at this juncture," said Samithi President Vijaykumar Hedge. Speaking to media persons here on Tuesday, Hedge said that there are many possibilities that led to the worst tragedy that ever happened in the recent times.
Uncertainty prevails till the outcome of the investigation is made public. However, accusing pilot?s fatigue or his lack of knowledge regarding the inadequacies of the runway holds no truth. The absence of the Controller in ATC might be one among other several reasons. The flawed runway has no stop way in case of emergency. Besides the runway width is not according to the rules and regulations.
From the centre, the width of the runway should be 150 meters on either side, while the air strip at Bajpe is only 100 meters wide on either side, he added. In an emergency, there are possibilities for the aircraft to plunge into the deep ravine on either side of the runway, if its slips slightly while landing, he added.
29/05/10 Mangalorean.com

Read More

Was Samad flying to death on fake passport?

Kasargod: Abdul Samad, a native of Kannur City who was killed in the Mangalore Air India Express crash, was buried at the local Juma Masjid on Sunday.
But a man in Dubai has complained to the Indian consulate in Dubai that Abdul Samad used his passport ( No F 0606599 ) to fly to Kannur, though he unfortunately died in the air crash. The complaint lodged by Shanavas Vallikkonathil to the Indian consulate in Dubai said that his passport number was found on the passengers’ list of the Air India Express against the name of Abdul Samad. The 50th number in the passengers’ list of the AI was that of Abdul Samad. The consulate officials contacted the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department and got the confirmation that the complainant had not left the UAE.
His address was shown in the passport as Abdul Samad Shanavas, Vellarithingal House, Arakinar, Kozhikode. The name of the complainant is Shanavas Vallikkonathil Sources in Dubai told Express that there was every possibility that the passport was forged by the Kasargod Embassy, a network of racketeers based in Dubai and have roots in Kasargod to forge original documents.
29/05/10 Kalathil Ramakrishnan/ExpressBuzz

Read More

Air India to assist victims' kin in insurance claims

Mumbai: A team of Air India officials Friday reached Mangalore to assist the air crash survivors and kin of the victims in seeking compensation, an official said.
"The team led by executive director (finance) S. Kundra and officials of M/s Mulla and Mulla (law firm for Air India) will meet the relatives of the deceased in batches to provide clarifications regarding compensation, procedures and documentation," the airline spokesperson said.
Additional helpline numbers (0824-2452306, 2452307, 2452308) have been provided in Mangalore for any assistance. A separate email id ix812@airindia.in has also been created.
The accident involving Air India Express flight IX 812 from Dubai to Mangalore May 22 claimed 158 lives. Only eight passengers survived the mishap.
28/05/10 IANS/Times of India

Read More

Companies offer jobs to relatives of Air India Express plane crash victims

Dubai: With the death of their two sons in the Mangalore air crash, Abdullah Haji, 65, and Mariamma, 55, have lost their sole means of livelihood.
But the initiative of companies like Lifeline Hospital group and UAE Exchange to offer employment opportunities for the immediate relatives of the Mangalore air crash victims, brings good news to dozens of bereaved families like theirs.
Based in Mangalore, Haji family were financially dependent on their two sons, Mohammad Bashir, 40 and Abu Bakr Seddiqi, 37, who were running a small trading enterprise in Dubai. Bashir and Seddiqi lost their lives in the Mangalore air crash on their way to attend their sister's wedding.
"It will be a huge relief for the family if one of their younger brothers can get a job. Their family, including a younger sister and two more brothers were completely dependent on Bashir and Seddiqi. Both their wives are not educated enough to take up a job and support the family," Mohammad Kunji, Bashir's father-in-law, told Gulf News over the telephone from the south Indian state of Kerala. Kunji said the family will readily take up an offer no matter where the placement is.
In one of the worst tragedies in recent Indian aviation history, the Dubai-Mangalore Air India Express flight crashed soon after touchdown at Mangalore airport on Saturday May 22, killing 158 passengers and the crew. Many of the victims were the sole breadwinners for their family, and their dependants face an uncertain future.
But to bring financial relief to these families who have lost their loved ones, Lifeline Hospital Group, based in Abu Dhabi, announced yesterday that they will provide 50 jobs for the employable relatives of the deceased.
Similarly, Sudhir Kumar Shetty, COO - Global Operations of UAE Exchange, based in the UAE and with branches all over India, told Gulf News immediate family members of the crash victims will be given priority while filling up vacancies in the company.
Air India has announced the release of an interim payment of Rs1 million (Dh77,628) per deceased passenger of the age of 12 years or more and Rs500,000 (Dh38,814) for each child below 12 years of age. Those injured are offered a compensation of Rs200,000 each.
28/05/10 Anjana Sankar/Gulf News.com

Read More

Incident: Indigo A320 at Mumbai on May 26th 2010, runway incursion

An Indigo Airbus A320-200, flight 6E-415 from Mumbai to Bangalore (India), was cleared to taxi on taxiway N (parallel to runway 09/27) for departure from runway 27, while a Jet Airways Boeing 737-700, flight 9W-616 from Kolkata to Mumbai, was on final approach to runway 27 being cleared to land on the runway at around 21:00L (15:30Z).
The Indigo Airbus missed the turn onto taxiway N however and entered runway 09 instead. The tower recognized the conflict and ordered the Jet Airways flight to go around. The Jet Airways Boeing landed safely on their second approach, the Indigo Airbus reached Bangalore safely without further incident.
27/05/10 Simon Hradecky/Aviation Herald

Read More

Major air mishap averted at Mumbai

Mumbai: Barely five days after an airliner crash at Mangalore claimed 158 lives, a major air disaster was averted Wednesday evening when an IndiGo flight taxied into the runway here where a Jet Airways aircraft was about to land, officials said.
Flight 9W616 of Jet had been cleared for landing, but the pilot aborted the operation after the air traffic control found that flight 6E415 of IndiGo was on the same runway, waiting for take-off, an official at the airport here said.
The incident happened at around 21.04 hrs, usually a busy peak time at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The IndiGo flight was bound for Bangalore, while the Jet flight was coming in from Kolkata.
"Instead of going on to taxiway "N", as per the designated instructions from the air traffic control, the Indigo aircraft had entered the main runway where the Jet flight was cleared to land," an official explained.
"Apparently, there was some confusion as some taxiway lights were faulty."
27/05/10 IANS/Economic Times

Read More

Poor visibility forces Delhi-Ludhiana flight to land in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: The Delhi-Ludhiana flight of Air India had to land at the airport here in the city because of poor visibility.
The flight with 35 passengers on board made an emergency landing after the pilot informed the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of the condition and the ATC directed the flight to land. The Air India officials made arrangements for all the passengers to reach Ludhiana by taxis.
28/05/10 Indian Express

Read More

No NoC, but Praful Patel cut the ribbon

Mangalore: Days after the ill-fated Air India Express flight IX-812 crashed at the Mangalore airport and claimed 158 lives, some damning facts about the airport are emerging. Official sources have revealed that the Rs 150-crore new terminal building of the Mangalore airport is still not in possession of a no-objection certificate from the Fire Department.
But that apparently is nothing serious for politicians, since Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel went ahead and inaugurated it on May 15.
Shocking as it may sound, the state-of-the-art terminal, to be functional from June, had failed to incorporate the Fire Department’s suggestions to change the design of basic equipment installed to fight blazes in the new terminal. Sources in Fire Department told Express that while the department had insisted on copper coated GIC standard pipes, the Mangalore Airports Authority of India had installed ordinary pipes, which are likely to corrode faster due to the airport’s proximity to the sea. “The corrosion will choke the supply of water and there would be no water in times of crisis,” sources pointed out.
28/05/10 Harsha/ExpressBuzz

Read More

Crash survivor ran with passport to get arrival stamp, AI may hire him

New Delhi: Air India Express Flight IX 812 from Dubai had plunged into a gorge and was burning when 24-year old Joel Pratap D’Souza crawled out, miraculously unhurt. Anyone else in his position would have headed straight to a hospital. But D’Souza, from Vamanjur in Mangalore, had more important things on mind — like reporting his arrival in India.
Leaving the burning craft, D’Souza made his way up the steep slope, hitched a ride on a motorcycle and reached the Bajpe airport terminal, holding on to his only identity — his Indian passport. He rushed to the immigration desk and demanded that his passport be stamped as proof of his arrival in the country.
A bewildered immigration official looked at D’Souza and asked him which flight he had come on — by then news of the crash had spread like wildfire.
D’Souza told him he was on the plane that had just gone down. The official was speechless.
Officials conducting search and rescue operations admitted that D’Souza was instrumental in providing crucial information to the ground staff.
Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav Jadhav told The Indian Express that he had decided to offer the young man a job in Air India. “In adverse circumstances, D’Souza displayed presence of mind. Such an employee is an asset to any organisation. I need such people at Air India,” Jadhav said. “I have to go through his profile and find him an appropriate job in this organisation.”
For D’Souza, this may be the answer to his prayers. If he lands a job here, he can stay back in the country, closer to his family. He had gone to Dubai for job interviews and, having been made an offer, was on his way home to collect documents when the plane went down.
28/05/10 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

Read More

Joel gets a hero's farewell from KMC

Mangalore: "You are not ordinary, you are a hero. You helped yourself to save your life and you saved other five lives too by sending them early to the hospital", said Dr. Mahesh Inder VS MBBS, MD, DHA (Chief Operating Officer & Medical Superintendent).? He was speaking at a press conference held in the KMC Board room today, 27th May, 2010. He added that Joel, who is one of the crash survivor which KMC hospital took charge of, had been blessed by God to be a miraculous survivor.
While discharging him from the hospital, Dr. Mahesh Inder handed over a floral bouquet to Mr. Joel D'Souza and said that he was a brave person who had saved five other passengers by sending them to the hospital in a car, while he himself walked till the immigration, had his passport stamped and came out to meet his home people.
According to Dr. Preetham Raj Salian (Orthopedic Surgeon), Joel had a compression fracture of the lower spine. The area around the fracture is painful, and the pain worsens with walking, standing and prolonged sitting. He also had a ligament injury in his right leg. He had been advised for 6 weeks of complete bed rest. Dr. Adul Fazil (Physician) was treating him. "When Joel was admitted in our hospital, he was very cooperative and Dr. Supriya Hegde (Counsellor) was assisting him when he was in shock.? Joel has seen this traumatic scene as it happened before his eyes and it will be forever in his mind. However he is slowly recovering from the shock" said Dr. Supriya.
28/05/10 Violet Pereira/Mangalorean.com

Read More

A warm welcome to Mayinkutty

Kannur: It was a home coming to be etched forever in the memory of a village. And, the villagers of Kambil in the district here gave him a jubilant welcome, treating him on par with a hero.
No doubt, K P Mayinkutty, the miraculous survivor of the Mangalore plane crash which snatched the lives of 158 passengers, turned out to be a hero after he reached home following his twoday medical treatment at Mangalore, where he recounted the story of his incredible survival several times over to news channels, relatives and the officials inquiring into the biggest air tragedy in recent times.
Sitting along with his wife Beefathima, daughter Jumana and son Munavar at 'Jumanas' in the nondescript village of Kambil, Mayinkutty had the feeling that he was on the top of the world as he narrated the wonderful story of his survival once again to Express.
Mayinkutty's cellphone continues to ring and his wife and children are attending all the calls.
Air India has offered a job to its most lucky passenger, a face saving measure to regain its fragmented image as an international airliner. "I will consider the Air India offer," said Mayinkutty, who is yet to recover fully from the shock of the tragedy at the Mangalore airport.
27/05/10 P Divakaran/ExpressBuzz

Read More

Her absence is killing us

Mumbai: "Mala majhi Sujata parath pahije," is what Sujata Survase's mother keeps muttering, amid sobs, to nobody in particular.
Sujata was among those on board the Air India flight that crashed at the Mangalore airport on Saturday.
Almost a week after the tragedy, the family's agony has been prolonged as they await news of Sujata.
Clad in a blue gown, Sujata's mother stares into nothingness, surrounded by about a dozen relatives, neighbours and friends who sit on the floor around her.
"It was supposed to be her last flight," said her father, Siddharth Survase (Suryavansi, as he was known until recently). "Sujata was keen to assist me as a choreographer for my forthcoming film, Bhappida Tussi Great Ho, which I am directing."
Sujata, he said, was a trained classical dancer who had assisted senior choreographers, and coordinated dance sequences for top heroines like Kareena Kapoor.
He recalled that before she started flying, Sujata joined a call centre only to earn Rs 50,000 that was required to become a bona fide member of the Cine Artistes' Association -- mandatory to be part of a film unit.
28/05/10 Shailesh Bhatia and Tehmina Sabuwala/MiD DAY

Read More

RIL eyes tier-II city airports to grow ATF biz

Riding on the back of growing air travelers in India, Reliance Industries (RIL) plans to increase its presence in tier II city airports by commissioning aviation fueling stations at six more airports in FY11.
“The company intends to commission these facilities at three airports in south India, and one each in east, central and west of India. The new establishments would take the company’s presence to 30 airports from 24 at present,” a person familiar with the development told Financial Chronicle. “The company is not looking to enter Tier I cities as of now, largely due to exorbitant land price when compared with Tier II cities.”
“These 30 airports would cater to 95 per cent of the ATF demand by the civilian air traffic. At present, the 24 airports cater to 30 per cent of the ATF demand,” RIL said in its latest annual report to shareholders.
RIL is now present at 24 non-metro airports.
27/05/10 Vikas Srivastav/mydigitalfc.com

Read More

Bullets in vacated hotel room, Italians in custody

Pune: Three Italians were detained at Pune and Mumbai airports on Thursday after bullets and pistol parts were found concealed in the room of a five-star hotel they had checked out of earlier in the week.
Delhi Police officials said Giovanni Cecconella (42), Gulio Pomelto (46) and Donato D' Angelo (43) had arrived in the Capital from Italy on May 24 and checked into Radisson Hotel near Indira Gandhi International Airport at 1 am. They stayed separately in room numbers 448, 474 and 349 and checked out at 9 am.
The Vasant Kunj police in Delhi scanned hotel records to ascertain who stayed in the room last. When they found the names of the Italians, they checked the CCTV and X-ray baggage scan footage. Police sources who examined the X-ray baggage footages said the ammunition and pistol parts were visible in the laptop bag of the Italians.
The accused had given their passport copies as identity proofs at the hotel. Based on this, the police issued a Look Out Notice on Wednesday night. At 7.15 am on Thursday, Customs officals at Mumbai International airport detained Pomelto as he was about to board a flight back to Italy.
28/05/10 Sahim Salim/ExpressIndia

Read More

Search suspended for black box of ill-fated Air India flight

Investigators hunted in vain for the crucial Digital Flight Data Recorder-the ‘black box’-of the crashed Air India plane for the second full day on Monday and were studying tapes of air traffic control contact with the aircraft in its final moments.
Bodies of 22 persons were meanwhile yet to be identified prolonging the agony for grieving families waiting to claim their loved ones and the results of DNA tests were awaited.
Operations for the search of the orange-coloured Digital Flight Data Recorder or the ‘black box’ - which had been the focus of investigators - were suspended in the evening and will be resumed on Tuesday.
CVR, other key devices to be analysed in Delhi
The crucial devices of the aircraft, including the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which could provide vital clues would be brought to New Delhi soon to analyse the cause of the accident that claimed 158 lives.
The CVR and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit (DFDAU), which record the cockpit audio and most of the aircraft’s technical details, would be brought to the headquarters of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) here for analysis, official sources said.
The CVR and the DFDAU, which were retrieved from the debris in a burnt condition, would be analysed by officers of the DGCA’s Air Safety Division. While the CVR captures radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit such as the pilots’ voices and engine noise, the DFDAU records all parameters of a short-duration flight.
However, since the two crucial devices are damaged, efforts would be made to take the electronic chips of the CVR and insert them in a serviceable unit in order to retrieve the information, the sources said.
24/05/10 The Hindu

Read More

Investigators sift through plane crash rubble

Mangalore: Searchers continued sifting through twisted metal, charred debris and tattered clothing in a ravine in southern India Monday, looking for the missing piece investigators hope will explain what went wrong in a deadly plane crash.
India's civil aviation authority said officials have found two key items that will help them piece together the last minutes of Air India Flight IX-812: the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight acquisition unit.
But on Monday they were combing the rubble for the flight data recorder -- commonly known as the "black box."
S.N.A. Zaidi, the head of India's civil aviation regulator, told CNN Sunday that it could be months before authorities can determine what caused the plane to overshoot the runway at Mangalore International Airport, hit a barrier wall and crash into a valley on Saturday morning.
The crash killed 158 of the 166 people on board the Boeing 737 passenger jet, which took off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and crashed while trying to make its scheduled landing in Mangalore. Eight people survived the crash.
The pilot and co-pilot did not report any problems before landing the plane, the aviation authority said.
A team from Kenyon International Emergency Services arrived at the scene Monday and looked on as searchers wearing rubber gloves examined rubble and a bulldozer pushed parts of the plane.
Experts from the company will help investigators identify remains found at the site and help the airline deal with other aspects of the crash.
Praful Patel, India's civil aviation minister, told CNN-IBN on Sunday that human error could not be ruled out and stressed that the runway where the plane tried to land was adequate.
24/05/10 CNN

Read More

Mangalore crash caused by pilot fatigue

New Delhi: Was the plane crash in Mangalore, which left 158 dead, caused by pilot fatigue' A day after the incident, Air India pilots suspect the crash took place due to fatigue related human error.
The country's worst air crash in a decade took place when the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Dubai to Mangalore overshot its landing and plunged down an embankment at the end of the runway.
Though it's still not clear what led to the British pilot flying the plane misjudging his landing so badly, a section of senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA), are already blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident. 'Pilots on duty on short haul international flights like the one from Dubai hardly get proper rest. They have to fly back to India after two to three-hours break, which causes fatigue over a period of time which in turn affects alertness and decision making at crucial times,' said a senior Air India pilot.
Though it's still not clear what led to the British pilot flying the plane misjudging his landing so badly, a section of senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA), are already blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident. 'Pilots on duty on short haul international flights like the one from Dubai hardly get proper rest. They have to fly back to India after two to three-hours break, which causes fatigue over a period of time which in turn affects alertness and decision making at crucial times,' said a senior Air India pilot.
A senior official of the airline said while long-haul flights get double set of crew, pilots managing the short-haul flights hardly get the required rest in between the duty hours.
Following the Mangalore crash, in a letter to the Prime Minister, the ICPA ~ an association of Air India pilots ~ has pointed out that up to 78 per cent of crashes were caused by fatigue-related human error.
24/05/10 The Statesman/Asia One News

Read More

Air India Probe May Take Two Weeks to Unlock Fatal Crash Data

Investigators may spend as long as two weeks analyzing data before they can say what caused India’s deadliest air disaster in 14 years.
The fire-damaged cockpit voice recorder recovered from the hillside crash site yesterday should yield the necessary clues, the government said in a statement. The aviation regulator will seek to determine how a 2-1/2 year old Air India Express Boeing Co. 737-800 flown by experienced pilots overshot the runway and burst into flames, killing 158 passengers and crew.
Air travel has doubled in the past six years as rising disposable incomes in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy encourage people to shun trains and take a plane for long-distance journeys. The government plans to spend as much as $2.6 billion on modernizing the nation’s airports and aviation infrastructure, including 35 facilities in smaller cities.
“Before clearing aircraft orders, we need to think whether we have the infrastructure,” said A. Ranganathan, a Chennai, south India-based aviation consultant and a former commercial pilot. “Proper planning is required for infrastructure development.”
India’s airports reported as many as 70 “near misses” in the last three years, according to minister Patel. The reasons include “co-ordination failures” and stress and fatigue due to heavy traffic, he told Parliament in March.
Flight IX-812 from Dubai to Mangalore crashed at about 6:05 a.m. on May 22. All the bodies of the dead have been removed from the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800, Harpreet Singh, Air India’s emergency response coordinator, said yesterday in Mumbai. Of those, 87 have been identified. There were eight survivors.
23/05/10 Vipin Nair and Rakteem Katakey/Bloomberg/Business Week

Read More

AI to release Rs 10-lakh interim payment for victim families

Mumbai: Air India on Monday said that it has decided to release an immediate interim payment of Rs 10-lakh to the family members of each victim of the Mangalore air-crash.
Besides, the family members of victims below 12-years of age would be provided Rs five-lakh as interim compensation, the airline said.
"To provide immediate relief to the family members of the deceased and injured passengers, Air India Charters has decided to release an interim payment of Rs 10-lakh. For passengers below the age of 12, it has been decided to provide a relief of Rs five-lakh," Air India spokesperson Harpreet Singh De told.
Air India will pay an interim compensation of Rs two-lakh to the family of each injured passenger, she said.
Six centres - Mumbai, Chennai, Kozhikode, Delhi, Dubai and Mangalore - has been set up for facilitating claims for interim compensation.
24/05/10 PTI/Economic Times

Read More

Mangalore crash: Insurers may have to shell out Rs 400 crore

Mumbai: Insurance firms are already feeling the heat with the national carrier, Air India, and relatives of the passengers who died in the ill-fated Mangalore air disaster set to claim compensation worth hundreds of crores of rupees in the coming days.
It is estimated that insurers may have to collectively shell out compensation claims to the tune of Rs 350-400 crore for loss of 158 human lives and the total destruction of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed.
The Air India (AI) Express aircraft was provided a comprehensive insurance coverage by four private sector general insurance companies led by Reliance General Insurance Co Ltd and co-insured by HDFC Ergo, Bajaj Allianz and Iffco Tokio. The entire AI fleet of 136 aircraft was insured for a total of $8.59 billion at an annual premium of around $24.3 million.
Industry experts say that AI will make insurance claims of at least Rs 300 crore as damages and another Rs 100 crore for passenger and cargo compensation claims.
According to the international Montreal convention for accident compensation treaty, which has 95 signatories including India, victims of an air disaster can claim Rs 75 lakh per passenger from the airline, Raju Desai, director of Raju Krishna insurance brokers, said.
24/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Aviation cover rates may increase

Mumbai / New Delhi: Aviation insurance rates are likely to increase after an Air India (AI) Express flight crashed while landing at the Mangalore airport on Saturday, killing 158 people in the worst airline accident in India in a decade, according to insurance company executives.
The claims stemming from the Mangalore crash will have a “big impact” on insurance rates, said T.A. Ramalingam, head of underwriting at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd, who also cited an increase in the number of smaller aviation-related claims in the past two years.
Insurance rates are going to “harden” when aviation insurance policies come up for renewal, said Ramalingam.
Another executive with an insurance firm who asked not to be identified as he is not authorized to speak with the media said insurance premiums for India’s airlines may rise by around 5% depending on the safety record of the carrier.
The premium local insurers charge an airline is based on international benchmarks such as reinsurance backup, which is calculated for a country based on the last 10 years’ record of the airlines and the premiums absorbed. “When a crash happens, this premium is raised so we can’t give discounts to the airlines to the extent we would have otherwise,” the executive said.
24/05/10 P.R. Sanjai and Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

Read More

Govt rule that kept US pilots at bay

Washington: Lobbied heavily by airlines in the US to stem the flow of their pilots to India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ruled in 2007 that Americans holding pilot’s licences cannot be employed by airlines in India beyond the age of 60.
The discriminatory decision to help an American industry with huge lobbying power worldwide was made even as DGCA rules allowed pilots of every other nationality, including Indians, to fly until they were 65 years old.
The decision prompted nearly 50 American pilots, whose applications to fly with Indian carriers were pending with Indian authorities, to change their plans for a career shift to India, according to a source in the DGCA who is familiar with the way the national regulator caved into US corporate interests.
While the questionable decision, which had been influenced by civil aviation minister Praful Patel, may have had no bearing on the weekend’s crash of an Air India Express flight, it forced airlines in India, both private and state-owned, to turn in a big way to pilots from non-English-speaking countries to overcome a shortage.
Difficulties in following instructions in English from air controllers and an inability to cope with heavy air traffic during landings and takeoffs by such pilots have been among the staple of complaints about the safety of aviation in India, following a recent boom in this industry.
The irony of India’s decision to ban American pilots who are over 60 was that it was made one month after the US Congress actually raised their retirement age to 65 to cope with a shortage of pilots in airlines in America.
The change merely required flight captains in the US who are over 40 to pass stipulated medical check ups, including cardiac examinations every six months instead of annually for younger pilots.
In addition to the 50-odd American pilots who withdrew their applications with the Indian regulator to fly with airlines in the country in 2007, several others left Indian carriers as a dead end after the DGCA changed its rules precipitously, according to sources in the airline industry.
24/05/10 K P Nayar/The Telegraph

Read More

CVR affected by fire but will yield data: DGCA

New Delhi: The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday said the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Air India Express flight that crashed at Mangalore on Saturday was affected by the fire but it was expected to yield the desired information. It would take a fortnight to analyse the details.
The DGCA also took into possession all documents pertaining to the aircraft and air crew, such as engineering, operations, training, air traffic control, fire fighting and allied services, for evaluation. The examination of all these information would take at least a couple of weeks.
The DGCA formed four groups — engineering and wreckage group, operations group, air traffic control group and aerodrome group — and initiated inspection of the wreckage site at 6 a.m. on Sunday.
24/05/10 The Hindu

Read More

Mangalore air crash: Did pilot try last-minute take-off?

Crucial evidence that could finally unravel the mystery behind Saturday's crash in Mangalore that left 158 people dead has been found and investigators are now trying to find answers to questions like these as they look into what could have possibly gone wrong.
According to sources, the throttle in the cockpit, extricated from the debris, was found in a forward position suggesting that the pilot may have attempted a final thrust to take-off seconds before the crash.
Meanwhile, investigators on Sunday also retrieved the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit (DFDAU), which record cockpit conversation and technical details, from the wreckage of the ill-fated Air India Express. But the search for the crucial Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) still continues.
24/05/10 Mangalore/NDTV.com

Read More

'Technical parameters, systems appear to be in place'

Mumbai: A high profile Nationalist Congress Party leader and the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel is saddened by the Mangalore crash. Patel, who was in Mumbai, spoke to Sanjay Jog on the worst accidents in a decade in the Indian civil aviation. Edited excerpts
What do you want to say about the Mangalore crash?
I am saddened and anguished over the incident. However, it is not a reflection on the safety standards set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other agencies.
Was it due to pilot error or technical snag?
Investigations have already been launched by DGCA. I will prefer the investigation to complete before making any comment in this regard. It’s a really unfortunate one. Apparently, all technical parameters and systems appear to be in place.
Doubts have been raised over the length of the Mangalore runway.
There is a criticism about the length of the Mangalore runway. All I can say is that it is a new runway replacing a 6,000 ft runway by a 7,500 ft runway fully compliant for Boeing 737-800 operations. Runways should be judged by the type of aircraft landing and takeoff, rather than its length. It has all the navigational and other aides to fly.
24/05/10 Business Standard

Read More

Govt may consider separate body to probe aircrashes: Patel

New Delhi: Government may consider setting up a separate body to investigate air accidents in line with the US National Transportation Safety Board, in view of Saturday's air crash in Mangalore that claimed 158 lives.
"We will be looking at this aspect (setting of an independent body to investigate accidents) very meaningfully.... We will look at, may be a different, an independent regulator for this purpose," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told CNN-IBN tonight.
His comments came when he was asked whether the government could consider establishing an independent body to probe accidents, like the NTSB that investigates all major accidents in the US including air crashes or accidents at sea or on highways.
Replying to questions on the Air India Express crash, Patel did not rule out a human error factor but made it clear that the report of the inquiry being conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation should be awaited before coming to any conclusion.
"You cannot rule out a human error factor. Certainly all parameters looked normal for a normal touchdown," he said.
Patel also said he had spoken to the DGCA to go into issues relating to small and difficult airports so that new policy formulations could be evolved in view of the peculiar problems there.
23/05/10 Press Trust Of India/Hindustan Times

Read More

Air safety audits in India are a 'big joke'

Bangalore: Even as civil aviation experts and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) determine the cause of the Mangalore crash, many have started pointing fingers at the faulty flight safety system, which is prone to sweeping serious safety flaws under the carpet.
Aviation safety consultant and former instructor pilot, A Ranganathan, said the manner in which safety audits are conducted in India is a ‘big joke’ as it follows “a policy of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”
Air India (AI) takes it easy, as most audit inspectors are officials from the state-owned airline and DGCA, the regulatory body operating under the ministry of civil aviation, said Ranganathan.
“They (AI) take it (safety audits) for granted as they know they can get over any problem. Today, anything can get approved if you have the right contact (in the DGCA or the ministry). Many private airlines can also cover up their safety violations that emerge from routine audits by leveraging their contacts in the ministry,” he said. In this year’s safety audit, auditors gave clean chits to all airlines, except regional airlines Paramount Airlines and MDLR. Though the government has improved the audit procedures considerably, there’s a long way to go to match international standards, added Ranganathan.
It was during the boom period between 2004 and 2008 that many lapses crept into the flight safety auditing, highlights Ranganathan. For instance, flight safety checks were not conducted on many carriers for more than two years during that time. “The standards really dropped during this phase. Today, we are paying the price for such safety laxity,” he said.
Air Marshal (retired) Bijoy Pandey said officials conducting audits are not adequately qualified and lacked in-depth technical knowledge to inspect safety systems of airlines. “If you compare the investigation accident reports filed by our safety inspectors to those brought out in some developed countries, you will see a marked difference between them,” said Ranganathan.
24/05/10 Daily News & Analysis

Read More

Lessons from the tragedy

There are few tragedies more heart-rending than a major plane crash. The Hindu expresses its deep solidarity with the families of the 158 men, women, and children who died in India's worst aviation disaster in a decade. Preliminary reports indicate that Air India Express's Boeing Flight IX-812 from Dubai could have landed safely at Mangalore's admittedly tricky ‘tabletop' runway had the experienced expatriate pilot not landed too far down the 2,450 metre runway, with the result that the Boeing 737-800 crashed through the perimeter wall at high speed and plunged into the woods below, breaking in two and bursting into flames. Under the circumstances, the survival of eight passengers was nothing short of a miracle. Preliminary reports also indicate that the weather was fine for the approach; it was not a wet runway; there was no problem with the aircraft; and visibility was good. But in all fairness, there should be no rush to judgment, especially by laypersons on technical matters on which experts are still unclear. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), which have been recovered, should help the inquiry figure out what went calamitously wrong on Saturday morning.
India has a relatively good civil aviation safety record but experts have been expressing the view that safety standards have been slipping in recent years, and that corners are being cut. As an expert has pointed out in this newspaper, there have been a number of “close shaves” in the last few years, highlighting the fact “there is something seriously wrong with the system.” The very nature of the Mangalore crash raises serious questions that need to be addressed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Airports Authority of India that manages the airports, and commercial airlines.
23/05/10 The Hindu

Read More

Cause of crash: 'Incorrect' flight path or pilot fatigue?

Mangalore: An "incorrect" flight path, missing the touchdown point, a brake failure, pilots' fatigue and judgemental error are various reasons being given out by technical experts for the air crash at Mangalore.
The Boeing 737-800 of the Air India Express yesterday overshot the runway and its 90 metre long spillover area, plunged into a ravine and burst into flames claiming 158 lives. While an official claimed that an "incorrect" flight path taken by the pilots of the ill-fated plane led to overshooting of the runway, this was being countered by another who said the ATC had given clearance to the aircraft to pursue the flight path and lock on to the Instrument Landing System when the aircraft was 10 miles away.
A section of senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, have already been blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident.
There was also a view that the cockpit crew of flight IX-892 might have tried to have a smooth landing instead of landing on a thud and, hence, overflew the touchdown point on the 8,000 feet runway. The touchdown point is an area of about 500 feet on the runway where the aircraft's wheels should touch for landing.
This, the sources said, could have been done as the airline has been insisting on avoiding bumpy landings.
23/05/10 Press Trust of India

Read More

Air India crash: Experts to conduct DNA test

Mangalore: A team of experts would conduct DNA tests to identify 22 victims of the air crash which are still remained unclaimed at the Wenlock Hospital here on Monday.
A team of experts landed here from Hyderabad on Sunday evening.The DNA test would help in identification of bodies charred beyond recognition in Saturday's Air India Express plane crash. Relatives of those killed have gathered at the Wenlock Hospital and are trying to identify their loved ones.
According to sources, sampling for DNA tests began at the hospital and results could take at least a week.
24/05/10 Economic Times

Read More

Mangalore crash: Pilot's body to be flown to Frankfurt: Air India

Mumbai/Mangalore: Air India spokesperson Harpreet Singh De on Monday said the body of 53-year-old pilot, Zlatko Glusica, who was killed in Saturday's Air India Express crash in Mangalore, will be flown to Frankfurt for last rites.
Zlatko Glusica was a British national of Serbian origin, who had been employed with Air India for over two years.
De said Glusica's body would first be flown to New Delhi, where embassy formalities would be completed before his body is cleared for proceeding to Frankfurt.
"From New Delhi, the body will be sent to Frankfurt, which again will be received by Air India staff. We have made arrangements for the family members of the captain to come to Frankfurt because he is actually based in Belgrade," said De.
"From Frankfurt, the body will move to Belgrade, with his family, his son and his brother, who will be coming there to Frankfurt and Air India officials who will accompany them to Belgrade," she added. She stated that the DNA testing for the remaining 22 unidentified bodies have begun, and around 80 samples have been collected and sent to Hyderabad for tests.
24/05/10 ANI/One India

Read More

Bodies of co-pilot, air hostess brought to Mumbai

Mumbai: The bodies of H S Ahluwalia - co-pilot of the Air India Express aircraft, which crashed at Mangalore airport on Saturday, and air hostess Tejal Kamulkar were brought here on Sunday afternoon.
While Ahluwalia is a resident of suburban Andheri, Kamulkar's family lives in Dombivali, in the neighbouring Thane district. Sujata Survase, another air hostess, who died in the crash, was also from Andheri. Her body has not yet been brought here.
23/05/10 PTI/Times of India

Read More

Plane crash survivor recalls escape

Mangalore: Sabrina Nasrinhuq hunkered behind a tree, steps away from the twisted metal remnants of the Boeing 737 passenger jet, screaming for help.
Minutes before, it was so dark and quiet that she thought she was asleep. Then the pain started. Her foot was trapped. She wrestled it free.
"Either someone pushed me out of the plane, or I jumped out, and then I landed on the forest floor," she told CNN Sunday while lying in a hospital bed, where she is receiving treatment for more than a half dozen injuries.
A group of farmers heard her cries and pulled her away from the wreckage, she said. As they climbed over tree roots and rushed her to safety, the plane burst into flames behind them.
Nasrinhuq is one of only eight people to survive one of India's deadliest plane crashes in more than a decade. Air India says 158 of the 166 people onboard Flight IX-812 were killed. Investigators are trying to determine why the flight, which originated in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, overshot the runway at Mangalore International Airport, hit a boundary wall and crashed into a valley early Saturday morning.
Nasrinhuq said the plane seemed to be seconds away from a safe landing when passengers realized something was seriously wrong. Rather than slowing down, she said, the plane seemed to speed up.
24/05/10 Sara Sidner/CNN

Read More

Many airports don't have approach radars

Chennai: When a plane crashes while landing, pilot error is always suspected. But, hardly anybody checks why there was scope for the pilot to err.
Mangalore airport does not have an approach radar. If it was there, air traffic control (ATC) could have warned the pilot about the altitude, speed or the glide path.
An approach radar that has a range of over 60 nautical miles is used by air traffic controllers to guide an aircraft to land. The radar not only increases air safety, but also helps the airport to handle more flights.
In the absence of approach radar, the pilot is virtually on his own. He will have to capture the Instrument Landing System (ILS) signals and use their judgment to land.
A busy airport should ideally have two radars, an approach radar and a secondary surveillance radar that has a range of 250 nautical miles. While countries across the world are aiming at complete radar coverage, India seems to be still in the dark ages as radar infrastructure has not matched the air traffic growth.
A majority of small airports in the country do not have a radar at all. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has installed only one of the radars, either the surveillance radar or the approach radar, at small airports.
24/05/10 V Ayyappan/Economic Times

Read More

Table-tops, bird hits: Many tricky runways in India

New Delhi: The Air India Express Boeing that crashed in Mangalore on Saturday veered off the runway after missing the landing threshold — an error that rarely causes a crash. In this case it did because of the runway's unusual configuration. The airstrip sits on a plateau making landing a test of any pilot's skill. But
Mangalore's Bajpe airport isn't the only tricky one in the country and experts warn that more such disasters
are waiting to happen if the burgeoning aviation sector doesn't keep pace with safety norms.
Particularly, the Kozhikode international airport in Kerala, with its table-top runway, comes under the scanner.
The Kozhikode airport has a 2,860 m long runway surrounded by hillocks. There's a valley at the end of the runway as in Mangalore.
Up north in Bihar, Mangalore is waiting to happen at Patna with only 6,330 ft of the 7,500 ft runway available for landing.
A decade-and-half after the first international flight took off from Jaipur, the city's Sanganer airport continues to operate on International Civil Aviation Organization's provisional licence due to non-compliance with norms.
Chandigarh international airport lacks adequate facilities and falls short of safety norms with no night landing facility. Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport, with 80 flights and an average of 5,475 passengers daily, is one of the busiest in the country. It reports the highest bird hits in the country mainly due to slums and the vegetation around it, forcing the authorities to install laser guns to scare away birds.
24/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Tier-II airports have failed to take off

Bangalore: Are airfields in Tier-II cities like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan and Belgaum getting neglected with the government’s focus squarely fixed on more lucrative airports in metros? Yes, according to civil aviation experts.
The central government is reluctant to allocate sizeable funds to Tier-II city airports because air passenger growth at these airports is still slow compared to metros, said an expert who did not want to be named.
“Not many airlines want to fly to smaller towns like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Belgaum and others because of the lower rate of growth there. One of the reasons is that the road network is now well-developed and people prefer to travel by road than fly on short-haul routes. This could be why the Centre is shying away from spending on these airports,” he said.
The reluctance shown by private companies to participate in modernising smaller airports have stunted the latter’s development in comparison to major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) spent Rs3534.62 crore in the 10th Plan and is expecting to spend Rs12417.17 crore in the 11th Plan period. Currently, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore are operated by private companies, along with AAI, under the private public partnership (PPP) model. On the other hand, the government has not been able to rope in private partners for most of the Tier-II airports.
24/05/10 Daily News & Analysis

Read More

Cockpit voice recorder found

The Cockpit voice recorder, which will help understand what went wrong after Air India Express flight IX 812 landed at Bajpe airport in Mangalore, has been recovered by authorities among the debris of the crash site. The recorder records conversations in the cockpit between the pilot and Air Traffic Control (ATC)
The crucial Flight data recorder (FDR), popularly known as the Black Box, is still to be found.
The Black Box is not actually painted black, but with heat-resistant bright orange paint. The unit is usually mounted in the aircraft’s tail section.
In the country's worst air disaster in a decade, 158 people died when the Mangalore-bound Boeing 737-800 flight IX-812 from Dubai overshot the runway and burst into flames at the Bajpe airport. 8 persons survived.
A team of top US transportation experts along with officials from Boeing is set to join Indian aviation authorities in probing the Air India Express flight crash.
23/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Mangalore air crash: AI arranging for grief counsellors

Mangalore: As families of Mangalore plane crash victims go through a trauma, Air India is arranging for the services of grief counsellors in an attempt to help them overcome the tragedy.
One 'Angel'--a SAT (Special Assistance Team) member of Air India--is also being attached to each survivor and to each of the families of the deceased to assist them in any possible way.
There were eight survivors in the crash of the Air India Express Boeing from Dubai here yesterday in which 152 passengers and the six-member crew were killed.
23/05/10 Press Trust of India

Read More

Co-pilot was passionate about flying & aeronautics

Mumbai: The calm of Shahid Bhagat Singh Co-operative Housing Society in J B Nagar, Andheri (East) was shattered early Saturday morning when the news of Harbinder Singh Ahluwalia's death came in. He was the co-pilot of the Air India Express plane that crashed while landing at the Mangalore airport.
Ahluwalia (40) was a bachelor. Youngest of four siblings — two elder brothers and a sister — he had finally decided to marry. "His mother was happy with his decision to finally settle down. The crash has left her broken," said a neighbour.
Ahluwalia was passionate about flying and aeronautics. To pursue his love for flying, he did not join his family business dealing in motor parts when his father died. "He was made of different mettle. He did not want to settle down before achieving his goals," said a relative.
He had more than 15 years of flying experience. His friends find it hard to believe that his skills as a pilot are being questioned. Before every flight, Ahluwalia took enough rest and did his homework before every take off, family members recounted. He was a "perfectionist" when it came to aeronautics, they said.
23/05/10 Sharad Vyas/Times of India

Read More

Killed in crash, this Mumbai airhostess was to marry soon

Mumbai: Thirty year-old Sujata Survase, a Mumbai-based airhostess aboard the Air India Boeing 737 Express aircraft from Dubai that overshot the runway at Mangalore airport while landing, succumbed to injuries.
Survase was a resident of the MHADA colony at Four Bungalows and previously worked at a call centre. One of her neighbours, Sarita, said, "Sujata wanted to shift to Mumbai so that she could be close to her family but wasn't able to. She wanted to switch back to her job at the call center since they paid her well. I last met her on May 1 when she was here to attend a puja and her brother's birthday party."
Survase's parents were looking at marriage proposals for their only daughter. The airhostess is survived by three brothers: two elder and one younger.
23/05/10 MiD DAY

Read More

Her final tweet: Looking forward to rain

As word got around, the number of her followers grew by the minute. With rapid retweets about twitter user 'netizentwo' as one of the dead passengers on the Dubai-Mangalore flight, a strange thing happened.
As one follower urged, "This girl @netizentwo deserves a posthumous following. So sweet are her tweets.
How cruel !! R.I.P....", others followed, "everyone must follow @netizentwo . this young girl lost her life in the mangalore plane crash. may her soul r.i.p."
Netizentwo was 17-year-old Harshini Poonja, who was flying home to Mangalore with her family for a wedding. Fate, however, had other plans. Harshini along with mother Manirekha, an employee of Gulf News and her father were among the 158 killed in the Air India Express flight IX-812 that crashed at Mangalore airport early Saturday morning. The aircraft plunged into a valley after overshooting the runway.
Harshini's final tweet (twitter entry) made from her mobile before she took her flight read "At the airport and blah =_= Only thing to look forward to is the rain'. After this she boarded the ill-fated Boeing 737-800, flying maximum capacity.
23/05/10 Times of India

Read More

Indian skies are safe for flying: Kanu Gohain, Ex-Director General, DGCA

During the last one decade, this is the only major mishap faced by a commercial aircraft in India. The last one took place in Patna in 2000, on which the report is in the public domain, and no one can blame air safety norms for that incident.
"As far as the Mangalore incident is concerned, let’s get the investigative report first before ascertaining what actually went wrong. Let’s collect all the information and analyse it before coming to the conclusion whether it was a technical fault or a human error. But I consider this as an isolated incident and the Indian skies are safe." says Kanu Gohain, Former Director General, DGCA.
The runway at Mangalore airport is absolutely perfect. We have a couple of other airports such as Calicut in Kerala and Lengpui in Mizoram which are also table-top airports. The Mangalore airport’s runway is about 8,000 feet and has passed all basic safety norms. The runway was upgraded in 2006 and the airport system was designed to rectify any problem that could have cropped up there. We are proud that India is now a leading spot on the global aviation map and the way we have grown is stupendous. In fact, the rate of accident in the Indian aviation sector is far less compared to the global industry standards.
Yes, because of our high growth and shortage of trained pilots in India, we had to recruit foreign pilots. But norms are quite strict when an airline hires a pilot from a foreign nation.
23/05/10 Shantanu Nandan Sharma/Economic Times

Read More

Accident will not clip aviation sector’s wings

New Delhi: The Air India Express crash in Mangalore is not likely to dampen the domestic aviation industry’s growth in any significant manner, say experts.
Saturday morning’s crash adds to a list of imponderables that the airline industry has been grappling with of late, from the ash clouds disrupting European flights to bloody unrest in one of the most popular tourist destinations for Indians — Bangkok.
“In the long run, it will not impact the industry as more people are flying in the recovering economy. There might be a slight slowdown in voluntary travel, but business travel will be largely un-impacted,” says KPMG director Amber Dubey.
No wonder many industry observers are dismissing Saturday’s tragic accident as an exception to an otherwise relatively clean record of safety norms and pilot training of the aviation sector in India, contrary to other reports on the uncomfortable number of ‘near misses’ reported in the last few years.
Economic buoyancy of the last six months and aggressive house-keeping by most players have helped improve airline yields, which were hit by the global downturn in 2008-09. Load factor of Indian carriers improved from 64% in 2008-09 to 73% last fiscal. The number of passengers carried by domestic carriers was 162.82 lakh in January-April in 2010 as compared to 133.41 lakh in the year-ago period.
23/05/10 Vishakha Talreja/Financial Express

Read More

'Incorrect' flight path could have caused crash: AAI official

Mangalore: An "incorrect" flight path could have caused the crash of the Air India Express aircraft from Dubai at Bajpe airport in Mangalore, a senior Airport Authority of India official said on Sunday.
The official, who visited the crash site, said, "An incorrect flight path could have been a possible reason (for yesterday's mishap)."
The official, who refused to be identified, was called in to assist in the investigations into the crash, which killed all but eight of 166 people on board. The plane overshot the runway, veered off and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the crash site yesterday, Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel had said the aircraft did not contain itself within the limited space on touchdown and overshot the spillover area on the runway.
23/05/10 PTI/Times of India

Read More