Pilot Error Seen Likely in Fatal India Landing

Investigators are becoming increasingly convinced that last month's fatal Air India Express crash was caused by pilots landing too far down a hilltop runway, and belatedly trying to get the Boeing 737 airborne again, according to people familiar with the probe.
Preliminary conclusions about the May 22 accident in India's southern city of Mangalore, these people said, indicate failures by the pilots to follow basic safety rules during the final approach, compounded by apparent cockpit confusion after touchdown.
Only eight of the 166 people aboard survived the early morning crash, in which the twin-engine jet plummeted down a cliff at the end of the strip, broke apart and then caught fire. It was India's worst aviation disaster in more than a decade, and has prompted a barrage of criticism.
Regulators and international air-safety experts are now focusing on ways to fix persistent shortcomings in India's pilot-training programs. Indian officials already have proposed tightening rules ranging from acceptable landing procedures to fatigue-prevention schedules for crews. Broader mandates are likely.
According to people knowledgeable about the crash probe, the tentative conclusion by investigators is that pilots failed to adhere to widely accepted safety rules about breaking off an approach if the plane is losing altitude too quickly, has too much speed just before landing or is likely to touch dangerously far down the runway. The lack of scorched rubber or other evidence of extreme braking on the runway supports the idea that the plane tried to lift off again. Information retrieved from the plane's flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders, however, indicates some confusion and hesitation, these people said.
21/06/10 Andy Pasztor and Vibhuti Agarwal/Wall Street Journal

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