Mumbai, Sep 2: A senior Air India executive commander prone to sudden, psychotic mood swings carried out an extremely unsafe manoeuvre onboard a Delhi-Paris flight on April 28 putting the Boeing 787 and the lives of over 200 passengers and crew at risk.
A panel formed to probe the incident concluded last month that the commander should undergo psychiatric evaluation and thereafter fly only as a co-pilot for six months, during which his behaviour should be under check. The commander is currently grounded, but the airline has formed another committee to relook the case and there are apprehensions he may get a clean chit.
Unlike the Germanwings March 2015 crash in which a suicidal co-pilot locked out the commander and flew into the French Alps killing all 150 people on board, in the Air India case, it was the copilot who raised an alarm.
On April 28, the commander, for reasons unknown, manipulated the onboard flight management computer and initiated a climb beyond the aircraft's altitude capability.
This would have taken the aircraft into what's commonly called the "coffin corner" — the altitude at which an aircraft becomes unstable and the flight controls offer no help. Once at this altitude, any reduction in airspeed would cause the aircraft to stall, but if the speed is increased (to prevent the stall) the aircraft could suffer structural damage. So either way the aircraft is at risk.
"Even as the commander started the climb, the co-pilot objected. But he disregarded the co-pilot's advice and the aircraft came close to stall speed," said a source. "Luckily for its crew and passengers, the aircraft was brought down to a safer altitude."
The co-pilot later reported the incident. "An inquiry was ordered, which subsequently discovered a number of other incidents where the commander's behaviour had come across as mercurial, unstable and temperamental, a trait considered unsafe for a pilot," a source said.
In the last 2-3 years, the frequency of such cases had gone up. The inquiry panel said it would be unsafe to overlook his behaviour pattern and recommended a psychiatric assessment by IAF doctors.
However, the airline, instead has constituted a new panel. "Two of the three members in this panel are known to be close to the commander and they might let him go scotfree and let him back into the cockpit in command," said a source. The AI spokesperson was sent a questionnaire, but the airline did not respond.
Welcoming the move Dr Arathi Krishna told coastaldigst.com that Indians stranded in any foreign country can utilize this facility. "Initially, I was approached by Mr Zakaria and Mr Sheik who wanted chartered flights to help their employees fly back to India. I asked them to write to the Indian Ambassador in Saudi Araia Mr Ausaf Sayeed. Then I requested the ambassador to forward the request to Joint Secretary Dr Nagendra Prasad, who is in charge of gulf division in the Ministry of External Affairs, and then to Secretary on charge of Gulf and then I requested Secretary of Economic Relations Mr T S Tirumurti who was also in charge of Gulf to follow this up," she said.
Comments
Dear Mr.Anand wake up don't comment like fool. What happend in Mangalore May 22nd 2010. Who did the crash landing of DXB/IXE flight. Because of restless duty n dirty airindia miss management arrogant pilot crash landed N attempted to take of from table top airport and swallowed innocents life. One Mr.Shetty AR also giving some use less comments in favor of this dirty airlone. If u look at historuair India is one top with miss handling cases.
Airindia is unsafe n dangerous airline.
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