Aeroplane technology has unquestionably improved by leaps and bounds. “Fly by wire technology” is a phrase that trips off the tongues of airline executives and experts, hacks and flacks. But, globally, there is a sad pattern to air crash investigations: in the end, because there is nobody to defend themselves and because the aircraft companies have well-oiled PR companies with enormous lubrication powers, it is all pegged to “human error”.
So it was in Bangalore in 1991, when an Airbus A-320 fell short of the runaway at the old HAL airport in broad daylight and bumped off the golf course into a blazing ball of fire. And so it will be in Mangalore, where this morning, a Boeing 737-800 either fell short of the runway or overshot the runway, depending on your news source.
For a couple of days, the talking heads will froth at the mouth about safety standards, airport infrastructure, etc, before it is business as usual. Few will talk of the extraordinary role Praful Patel, the civil aviation minister, has played in singularly bringing Air-India, Indian, and Indian Airlines to the ground, as the competition soars.
So, what do you think caused the Mangalore air crash that turned the dreams and hopes and prayers of 160-odd people and their families into a pile of ash in minutes? And will things ever change in India?
What the intial report seems to suggest is:
The runway was opened/operational just 10 days back.
A passenger by name Ibrahim, reported sound like tyre burst, before the crash and jumped out.
What will happen is same like what happened of the fire accident in the Bangalore before.
Aircrafts crash due to one or many of a variety of reasons, as enumerated by you in the poll above.
The reasons may be different as on a per case basis.
I do not think it is wise for people like us to speculate(take a poll) as to what the possible reasons could be. (The matter is as good a sub-judice)
The responsiblity to find the cause rest with the authorities. If we are not happy with it, we can use the RTI to make the investigations expediated and transperant.
Its worked in other countries before.
And yes, I too hate PP.
With planes like these.. Who needs terrorists
In India, life is cheap. Why do we always focus on air accidents. Why not turn our eyes to road accidents. The last time I did a two way trip to Coimbatore from Bangalore, I saw 5 accident sites(all may not have been fatal)
The number of road accidents per year in India is 1,30,000.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5519345,00.html
Why is this poll being conducted? Who are we to decide/give opinion on what caused the accident, sitting from our home n office?
I have always had this doubts about the landing vibrations caused. It causes such a huge twist and wayward shaking that we can feel how much a pilot would be struggling to get hold of such a huge carrier. At the same time an international carrier would have a smoother landing.
Why do we need to take such a risk at first place.
Because Praful Patel would be busy with IPL with his lady personal secretary and striking under table dealings with Mallya instead of passenger safety.
He would answer like creating competition, increasing profits, helping middle or is it cattle class and so on; while at the same time we will have lakhs of crores deposited in LIC .
Infact it’s a cheap way of reducing population again. Cheap competition cheaper thoughts cheapest nation.
Bad location of the airport and the weather.
As someone who knows a thing or two about flying, here are the three paise (adjusted for inflation) based on news reports only.
1. The terrain is not that difficult for anyone with enough experience to become a captain in a Boeing 737 class airplane. There are more difficult airports in India (and around the world) and flights operate routinely without incident
2. The weather (mild drizzle apparently) is not difficult. Yes, it does add to the required landing distance, but the Bajpe runway used by this flight was plenty long (9000 ft plus). Visibility would have been a more critical factor, but if it was indeed light drizzle, it would not have been an issue
3. The aircraft is one of the newest in not just the Air-India fleet, but in India
4. The pilot was a Serbian national, one of the many expat pilots who are flying in India. The reason Indian carriers hired expats is because they have the experience that is in shortage in India as of now
5. I’m leaning towards pilot error (with the limited information available). It appears as if the airplane landed long which is not a mechanical problem, not something caused by the terrain, but something caused by the pilot
Having said that, accidents happen, even to the most experienced pilots. Aviation has a fantastic safety record and is safer than driving (statistically). If this is the outrage we feel because of an air crash, what should we feel about a train crash where everything should be so much more easier?
Deaths are unfortunate, but we should make sure that events such as this elicit a mature response rather than something like shutting down that airport, grounding Boeing 737s or banning expat pilots.
To make this all a bit more personal, my mother was supposed to be on that flight, but she changed her plans.
And Murthy, I don’t know if I’ve seen a more idiotic comment on this blog than yours.
Why don’t our ‘Gory-nament’ sell off this loss making dyno which served its purpose during pre-liberalization era and which is now long past its expiry date.
I request its staff to go on a never ending indefinite strike for a hefty rise, so that its flying coffins are grounded for good and lives of future passengers can be saved in the bargain,
Pilots & Crew members have survived here (On yahoo ‘s list of survivors ).they would be telling the stories..But my heart goes for those infants and childrens
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I don’t see the point of this poll. Why is it even being conducted as enidhi says above? Let the investigation be done by locating the black boxes and determining the information in them.
Its human error all the way!!
Immediate one would’ve been that of pilot. But, what about the human error of not considering what happens if pilots overshoot or undershoot?
Are those any less erroneous?
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Murthy:
>we can feel how much a pilot would be struggling to get hold of such a huge carrier
hmmm… You mean like, Hercules lifting the earth??!!
Read up! Air crafts are built to handle the violent shudders far higher than the landing one.. Air turbulences can cause much more violent vibrations, shakes, shudders…
G3S:
“And Murthy, I don’t know if I’ve seen a more idiotic comment on this blog than yours.”
Murthy is renowned for making idiotic comments all over the place. Just like a dog cannot help pissing on the road, our man cannot help making such comments – it is second nature to him.
And churumuri, this poll is quite stupid. Most of us here don’t know much about aviation and there’s no point in guessing. Just wait for the black boxes to be found and studied.
G3S and Vinay : “A bad worker blames his tools” is what indirectly you want to say to me. OK. keep supporting rotten buses, stinking trains, torn runaways and cardboard planes.
harkol: Air turbulence was a good point. Please extend it to quality of plane to overcome it. If it doesn’t all the balancing act will fall on pilot.
@enidhi, @Wide Angle:
Since ours is a budding democracy, lets vote & finalize the reason !
@Murthy:
I can feel how you are feeling about anding vibrations. Actually I get the same feeing when train changes tracks. I have stopped travelling by train.
Please dont be like 24/7 channels and ask such questions. We neither have the knowledge of nor have an expertise in such things. Get a life.
Murthy:
Air travel is the safest means of travel. Still, most people, including me, feel some fear when the aircraft encounters turbulence, or when the landing is not-so-smooth, etc. That is understandable. No matter how much statistics are reeled off, we laymen will continue to have a mental fear of certain aspects of flying, some more than others.
No one wants to “indirectly tell you” about bad workers and tools. Your comment is idiotic in all aspects. Read through your comment again – Praful Patel, IPL, population control and what-not!! And one more thing – like Harkol said, please read up. You appear to think that the pilot flies his plane like you drive your Bajaj scooter, ‘controlling’ it with great difficulty. Before typing comments like “Please extend it to quality of plane to overcome it. If it doesn’t all the balancing act will fall on pilot.”, kindly read up a bit.
we need no taliban air india will do
Which loser’s idea was to create this poll?
Wait for the official report to come out.