AI pilot faces stringent action

Kolkata: The pilot who was in the cockpit of the India Post (formerly Alliance Air) aircraft may face severe penal action, ranging from suspension to cancellation of the commerical pilot's licence if found responsible for the blunder at Kolkata airport on Wednesday.
A major disaster was averted when the pilot of an Air India flight with 449 Haj pilgrims on board noticed the cargo aircraft on the foggy runway just as it was about to land.
Though Air India, that operates the Boeing 737-200 leased to India Post, is putting up a brave face and claiming the pilot could not have made the elementary error of wandering into the danger territory, sources in air traffic control insisted the error was that of the pilot.
"We have gone through the records pertaining to the communication between the cockpit and the ATC. The pilot was instructed to stop ahead of the secondary runway but he crossed it and proceeded to the primary runway. It is a clear violation that jeopardized the safety of over 450 persons," a source in the ATC said.
Air India, however, argued that it was improbable that a pilot would disregard such a vital communication and put himself and the plane in jeopardy. "It must be miscommunication. Let the cockpit vioce recorder be examined and the facts will be known," an airline source said, adding that a number of errors had happened in the past few months due to lack of clarity in communication between the ATC and the cockpit. The regional controller of air safety will sift through the evidence and decide on the case.
Wednesday's incident was the most serious with the margin of error so huge that an accident could easily have occured. The captain of the special haj flight (a Boeing 747 jumbo aircraft) was in landing formation when he spotted the Boeing 737-200 aircraft on the runway and acted swiftly. Aborting landing, he stepped on the throttle and the aircraft went into a steep climb. It was only after the pilot of the B-737-200 aircraft exited the runway that the plane landed.
02/01/09 Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India - International Jan 2009, Air India Regional Jan 2009, Airports Jan 2009, Cargo Jan 2009, NACIL Jan 2009, Safety Jan 2009