Last Year’s Air India Express Crash In Kerala Due To Pilot Error, Says Report

Pic courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Non-adherence to the standard operating procedure by the pilot flying the aircraft may have been the possible cause of the Air India plane crash at Kozhikode airport last year, according to a government report released on Saturday.

“‘The probable cause of the accident was the non-adherence to standard operating procedures by the pilot flying, wherein, he continued an unstabilized approach and landed beyond the touchdown zone, half way down the runway, in spite of ‘Go Around’ call by [the] Pilot Monitoring which warranted a mandatory ‘Go Around’ and the failure of the Pilot Monitoring to take over controls and execute a ‘Go Around’,” the 257-page report by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau stated.

A ‘Go Around’ is when pilots decide to abort a landing before or after touching down if they feel that they may not be able to bring the aircraft to a safe stop. In a ‘Go Around’, the aircraft informs the air traffic control of their decision to abort their planned landing before making another approach to land at the same or at a diversionary airfield, reported NDTV.

According to the report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau — a division of the Ministry of Civil Aviation which probes plane accidents — the role of systemic failures as a contributory factor to the crash cannot be overlooked.

The aircraft had 184 passengers and six crew members on board Flight 1344 that crashed upon landing in Kozhikode after taking off from Dubai on August 7, 2020. As many as 19 passengers and two pilots were killed.

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