Not just date, M'luru & Pak crashes had more in common

Mumbai: The similarities between the Air India Express (AIX) Mangalore crash and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Karachi crash don’t end with the accident date: May 22. The PIA pilots appear to have repeated two crucial mistakes that AIX pilots also committed ten years ago. Both the sets of pilots, belonging to national flag carriers of the two neighbouring countries, didn’t opt for a go-around initially, though the conditions called for it and then later, when it was too dangerous to go-around, both the pilots attempted one, only to end in a crash.

In both the cases, the aircraft were too high during the initial approach (descent) to land. In the PIA case, flightradar24 data shows that the A320 aircraft was about 2,500 ft higher than the correct safe height for that point, said Capt Amit Singh, an air safety expert. Air Traffic Control (ATC) recordings gleaned from the internet show that Karachi ATC had instructed the PIA pilots twice to discontinue the approach because the Airbus 320 aircraft was too high for a safe landing. In the Mangalore crash, the cockpit recordings showed that the Air India Express pilots had realised that the Boeing 737 aircraft was too high on descent and had three factors that contributed to what’s called an “unstabilised approach” in aviation parlance. A senior commander said: “If the approach is unstabilised, you just go-around. But both the sets of pilots chose to make major corrections to aircraft speed and height by increasing descent rate during approach. Only minor corrections should be made during approach, if major corrections are needed, don’t risk, just go-around and make another landing approach. Safety should be the first concern.”

When an aircraft comes on land, unstabilised, at a high speed and high rate of descend, then one of the cheats that pilots employ to avoid a hard touchdown is to extend the landing flare the part of landing that just precedes the touchdown during which the aircraft floats over the runway. But an extended flare results in a touchdown deep into the runway, which is what happened in both crashes.

While the AIX aircraft touched down with landing gear down and locked, the PIA aircraft apparently touched down on its engines as the wheels were apparently not down and locked.Whether the PIA pilots forgot to extend the gear despite various cockpit warnings, whether they extended it too late, leaving no time for the gear to extend and lock securely for touchdown or whether they had a problem with landing gear isn’t clear.

Full report on www.toi.in