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Was it pilot error?
A doctor buries his mistake. A pilot is buried with his. Even though I sit 7,200 miles away from the scene of the...
The writer has served in the Planning Commission and the IMF meekal.ahmed@tribune.com.pk
A doctor buries his mistake. A pilot is buried with his. Even though I sit 7,200 miles away from the scene of the crash, the shock was palpable. I have lived in Islamabad for 25 years. I love commercial aviation and have read countless books on the subject with a focus on flight safety. Despite many air accidents that we read about, flying is the safest form of travel. It is calculated that if you were born on an airplane and flew in it and never got off, you would not be involved in a fatal accident until you are 78 years old. Those are pretty good odds.
Yet when a crash does happen we feel a sense of fear and trepidation. What caused a sophisticated fly-by-wire Airbus A321 – with the most advanced avionics and systems that man has created to date – to fly into a hill? The commander, Captain Pervaiz Chaudhry, was an ex-PIA pilot with thousands of hours of flying time. He must have made hundreds of landings and take-offs from Islamabad airport. How can a highly experienced pilot trained on the most sophisticated six-axis motion simulators (which can be more challenging to fly than a real aircraft) pilot a high-tech aircraft into a wall and kill everyone?
Two aircraft ahead of the A321 broke off their approaches and diverted to Lahore. However, the weather can change rapidly and for the better. It is my sense, based on discussions on internet aviation forums, that the captain was making a circle-to-land approach. This is a tricky manoeuvre, used when the wind in Islamabad is out of the east. The procedure calls for a normal Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Runway 30. At a specified height and presuming that the pilot can see the runway he breaks off the approach, curves to the right and then turns left and flies parallel to the Margalla Hills, turns left again and approaches the opposite Runway 12 coming in over Murree Road. He can either keep visual separation from the Margalla Hills to his right or if the hills are shrouded in low clouds as they were that fateful day, he stays within an arc (which is drawn from a point at the airport). This arc is clearly displayed on the navigation display (ND) as a curved line. I do not recall the distance of the arc from the airport but obviously the arc is calculated to keep the plane clear of the surrounding high terrain.
Then something fateful happened. A lapse of concentration, distraction, spatial disorientation, loss of situational awareness, or the greatest killer of all: over-confidence and complacency. What is tragically obvious is that the captain drifted outside the curved arc and hit the hills. It is almost certain that as the aircraft approached the high terrain a computer generated voice in the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) would have warned “Terrain! Terrain”! When the pilot hears that chilling warning the procedure is to immediately pitch up the nose of the aircraft to about 15 degrees while simultaneously applying GA (Go-Around) full power, wings level and head straight ahead. If you hesitate, turn, or think the warning is false, or are not aggressive enough with the manoeuvre you will most likely hit something. If I am wrong and he was making an approach to Runway 30 and hit the hills, he was way off course. Did air traffic control not see the aircraft on its radar getting dangerously close to high ground?
We will never know. Pakistan has no tradition of publishing air accident reports. Cairo, Taif, Kathmandu and most recently Multan remain cloaked in deep mystery. All the public hears is rumours, ill-informed speculation by the media, spin, denial, and obfuscation from authorities. This tragic accident will change nothing. As the saying goes, ‘if we do not learn from past mistakes we are doomed to
repeat them’.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2010.
Reader Comments (44)
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I have written in my comments on other story “Pilot-to-tower recording disclosed” that last conversation of the Pilot with the Control Tower is indicating that despite repeated warnings Pilot did not went on the root as directed by the Control Tower.
This indicate that Pilot of illfated Air Blue ED-602 was over confidence.
Mr. Meekal Ahmed in his article also wrote that “A lapse of concentration, distraction, spatial disorientation, loss of situational awareness, or the greatest killer of all: over-confidence and complacency.”Recommend
Makes a lot of sense. But I wonder why the government is ‘not’ able to find the black box until today, or not willing to declare that they have found it.
Although your article will clear a lot of theories, but the actions of the Government prevent conspiracies from dying away.Recommend
Mr. Reza,
The black boxes (actually orange) are there. This is not an accident that happened in the Amazon jungle or in 10,000 feet of water.
It will be found and it is there.
The question is, ‘then what’?
Everything will be hushed up and the government (like all previous governments in the previous 62 years) will put out a bit of spin and BS and hope you, the gullible citizens of Pakistan, will buy it, leave the subject alone and move on.
Pakistan is a member of the ICAO. The ICAO should suspend Pakistan’s membership for lack of transparency and actions prejudicial to air safety — not only in Pakistan but the entire world aviation community — until and unless they publish a full air accident report complete with the readings of the Digital Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder accompanied with well-considered and meaningful air safety recommendations.Recommend
Read ur article but why would a pilot (well experienced) make such a blunder to ignore the warning EGPWS as he knows that he will get him self killed by this ignorance .well it might be loss of situational awareness,lapse of concentration, but it doesnot mean that he deliberately did it. and there is a system to cope up with it in form of atc they must have warned him. it is subjected to the availability of black box. but i think they might have found it.Recommend
My heart goes out to all the berieved.I don’t know Capt Pervaiz,but I will say that he was a PROFESSIONAL.Why??Being a pilot myself(though a chopper one who mostly flies VFR i.e.flying from A to B with mostly outside references/visual clues),and an admirer of Commercial airliners since childhood,flying those big birds isn’t a hit n try affair gentlemen.And please let us all get this straight for once…an accident attributed to Pilot error does not mean that the pilot was ‘unprofessional’.If Mr.Pervaiz has /had flown for 40years of his life,he had done so safely.Why strip that credit off him?
Okay,let’s assume it was Pilot Error.This is my view,I might be wrong.While flying abiding by IFR(Instrument Flying Rules,which ALL commercial airliners do)a pilot can fly from Karachi to New York without having to look out of his cockpit window even for a second(except seconds prior to touch down).This becomes a second nature,to TRUST their aircraft’s instruments.On that ill fated day,the pilot came quite low(with respect to IFR regulations)due to low clouds(IFR or VFR,you have to AVOID AT ALL COSTS mountains shielded by clouds)and that had to be done visually(i.e.he switched over to Visual Flying,getting help from outside references other than his aircraft instruments).Maneouvering such a big bird at low altitudes with the fear of hitting hills very close by is no easy affair.The writer is right that most probably the dangerous terrrain warning came on.That can create panicky situations if at the same time you happen to RE-ENTER clouds again,as they were very low .This means that the pilot now has to SWITCH OVER to IFR again.This transition is not easy/very quick especially with the pilot knowing that the hills are very near:his mind now will not be totally relying on the instruments and there will be a tendency to rely on his just shed off visual picture and will want to get the aircraft as high as possible as soon as possible.This gets it into an unusual attitude,and then with dangerous terrain just metres below you,only God can help.
My knowledge tells me that this was amongst the co pilot’s very initial flight;so probably there was some communication formalities maybe between the two;BUT I WOULD ADD…THAT TOO MAYBE OUT OF PROFESSIONAL RESPECT other than some other factor.May God grant them Heaven.Ameen.Recommend
Unable to find the black-box enigma is yet to be solved. The plane crashed on the ground, for heaven’s sake, by this time they would have located the black-box even on the sea. A delay which can only happen with Pakistani authorities. Leaving us with little hope in finding substantial results after said investigation. It amazes me how poorly the whole event was reported and covered by local media and government officials. With a popular news channel showing after every minute an animation of the plane crash, making it not easy for the affected. This nation has a lot to mature before recognizing the meaning of freedom of speech.
S.Recommend
I agree with the writer that when the GPW starts to shout about TERRIN the pilots take an action which is suitable but what really happened.Dis the pilot froze on the controls or there was not enough time to react or there was some other things going on inthe mind of the captain at that time. MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE SOULS. AMEIN.Recommend
Excellent piece, Sir, on a subject that is mired in inuendos and conjectures. As a lay person, I wonder whether there is a mechanism in place in Pakistan to ensure that a relatively small private sector airline, such as Air Blue, is compliant with the internationally prescribed best practices in civil aviation, inlcuding the state of health of the flight crew?Recommend
This report , black box analyses, last ATC/PILOT CONVERSATION ,and anything and everything must to brought out.it is real test of the so FREE/OPEN/POWERFUL AND WHAT NOT MEDIA now.
people would really follow the information,(story for media point of view),as it has a tail of ……THE NO FLY ZONE .Recommend
I wish that the pilot had succeeded in his missionRecommend
Informative piece.
Could it be that someone walked away with the “black box” thinking it was something valuable? How heavy is it? I ask this because I heard reports that people from the surrounding areas had reached the spot before the rescue workers or police, and had walked away with whatever valuables they could lay their hands on.Recommend
@Meekal.Sir,I can imagine your anguish at the tragic airbus crash.I can also see your keen awareness of the futility of your tears;in fact,the grief of the entire nation.However,I do not agree with you when you describe the citizens of Pakistan as gullible.It is time you realise that they are absolutely helpless.The process of crippling the nation is moving very fast indeed.Recommend
Disagrees with first Comment as without facts you cannot say any thing, and if the transcript you are referring published on internet is fact, that’s not at all. No offence, but a kid watching National Geographic Crash investigations can tell what facts Blackbox has and whats the importance of it. Mr Rehan tells a great reality of the value of facts that are missing. please stop accusing the Pilot before the true story. Or i must say, stop being the typical who jumps the conclusions without the proper information. Wait for facts then conclude. Nice reading to share and spread more information. ThanksRecommend
@meekal
while i subscribe to full disclosure and conforming to international aviation safety standards, you are lop-sided when you call for Pakistan to be charged. you said: “The ICAO should suspend Pakistan’s membership for lack of transparency and actions prejudicial to air safety — not only in Pakistan but the entire world aviation community — until and unless they publish a full air accident report complete with the readings of the Digital Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder accompanied with well-considered and meaningful air safety recommendations.” i wonder if one should apply similar measures against the american FAA for their failure on 9/11 plane crashes. i hope someday people of our beloved Pakistan would have compassion for the country that grew and groomed them up.Recommend
This is a clear case of suicidal pilot. No two questions about it. It is time that both the DGCA and the pilots’ association in Pakistan dig deep into and address the problem of irresponsible pilot attitude. I have being hearing stories about pilot irresponsibility from the ’50s. Being a pilot and having being trained in Pakistan, I look back and can’t imagine why this chronic problem has not been addressed. It is disastrous. This crash, especially after the tower-pilot conversation, illustrates an over confident pilot, who had no business flying the heading or the altitude in that weather! Time to wake up Pakistani pilots and take the initiative to address the problem of chronic pilot irresponsibility. And please do not use any alibis because lives are at stake in your business!Recommend
Good morning
Most interesting any you seem to be particularly clued up on such matters. Did hear yesterday that the pilot devoted the entire previous night to communing with his Maker on the occasion of Shab e Barat. If this was so, then obviously as a 65 year old he would not have had a full complement of whatever wits were left to him.Recommend
Good morning
Most interesting as you seem to be particularly clued up on such matters. Did hear yesterday that the pilot devoted the entire previous night to communing with his Maker on the occasion of Shab e Barat. If this was so, then obviously as a 65 year old he would not have had a full complement of whatever wits were left to him.Recommend
I was so much terrified when seeing the site. Actually this was quite amazing for me that I never saw such kind of flight before,that was going towards the hills. Its height from ground and speed was very much alarming.
There may be chances of hijacking , because I can’t expect such kind of flight from a highly experienced pilot.
May Allah rest them all victim in peace.Recommend
Never second guess an accident from the comfort of an armchair.Recommend
I think, Black Box should be the starting point of all the investigations, or else, as very rightly proposed by the writer, ICAO must suspend Pakistan’s membership to put pressure, but I wonder, why would they do so when we ourselves are not serious to find out the real causes of this tregedy, May God help us…we the helpless…Recommend
@Mr Raza
You can not put all the blame on the pilot before you have some handful proofs.
And another thing, black box is still missing, but on the day of crash a local channel reported of being it found. Wht does that mean??? There must be some government conspiracy forsure due to which black box is still missing. And may Almighty Allah Bless the soul of the people who ost their lifes.Recommend
very good and informative discussion! keep commenting onRecommend
It is so tempting to be the expert, judge, jury and executioner – all without the benefit of evidence and investigation. This article insinuates that the Pilot was somehow responsible. So either he was drunk, deranged or suicidal.
Or will someone dig up a half baked ‘truth’ from somewhere, conveniently hiding this for 40 years. If this is true, this person should be arrested and tried for culpable murder as an accessory to the fact.
Are you already aware of the contents of the two black boxes?
Or of the full set of conversations with the three planes with the control tower?
Or the fact that eye witnesses saw the plane’s wheels out and not in a position where the Pilot is trying to abort and restart the landing?
Or the report that there is known vulnerability of some pressure plate in this aircraft, which needs some careful maintenance
or, many other still unknown ‘facts’.
This is sad. Our quest to find closure to such events lead us to comment without a thought that this will be the cause of hurt to many people – the victims, their families, friends and the Pilot’s family as well.
Was any of you affected by this crash: brother, father, wife, son, sister.. I am sure not, otherwise you would be grieving.
I would suggest that we let the investigation begin and if we do have to say something, it should be – and the Media can drive this very effectively:
All stake holders are involved not just the one with vested interests. This includes representatives (lay people who can understand the proceedings) of the deceased. The international conventions call for this.
The CAA is forced to become public in its information. Interim updates on the website of the investigations. These are no state secrets. International law requires this.
Publish the final report and the actions needed by all concerned.
Make public announcements to call for any eyewitnesses who saw this
Immediately publish on the web, ALL the reports and the recommendations as well as the followup on this of ALL the earlier crashes in Pakistan.
The state of CAA and its cover ups need to be made public. it is rotting and its policies have already driven business to the UAE by its silly and bureaucratic decisions.
This will ensure that:
There will not be a need for such tragedies to happen for us to wake up, if the actions are taken which are in the conclusions of the Reports
Proper compensation is made to the people even if the company goes bankrupt.
If the plane was to blame then the government to support the survivors to take this court to any extent for compensation by the manufacturers. Not just the blithe remark which one read today about R.s 1M to be paid the victims according to the CAA rules. Who made these rules and who put the price on death?
Salman AnsariRecommend
Black Box actually orange in color has a beacon and and radio receiver can easily trace it. When someone states the do not have it , it means the have it.
The Black Box is actually just a hard drive which has recorded all the info. You can connect it to a PC or laptop and see and hear all the information.
If someone has picked this up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The weight is 13 pounds and is 19 inches by 12 inchesRecommend
@ Mr. Meekal Ahmad,
Actually there is a correction to be made in your article. The pilot was not using ILS at all and was coming in on visual totally despite poor visibility. Runway 12 of Islamabad does not have ILS. The other one does but for some reason traffic control cleared the plane to land on the runway without ILS. Further more the plane did not have Mode-S/ADS-B system either so, there was no backup warning system either. All this plus, a few other errors here and there contributed to the crash, eg. overconfidence, old pilot showing off skill to the new one, technical error in nav sys, late warning by control tower, warning by control tower not meaningful enough, lack of modern technologies installed on plane and airport which allow safe flight in zero visibility and bad weather, etc. There is not going to be single cause, most of the crashes have multiple causes behind them.Recommend
Yes, Madam Jilani, I did read somewhere that the pilot could have been up all night. That is very disturbing news.
Peacelover, I don’t know what you mean about the American FAA and the 9/11 plane crashes. If you mean transparency, everything from the CVR and the DFDR was published in full. There are even computer-generated color graphics of the path taken by all the planes. ATC communication is also there (if you recall one of the hijackers accidently hit the wrong switch and thought he was addressing the passengers when in fact it came over to ATC in Boston). You can get anything and everything on the inter-net. Just Google it.
I hope the pressure to publish will come from HERE. From people like all of YOU. Some say the media being so powerful these days will not let the government (specifically the CAA) get away with spin this time. But the Multan Fokker crash was when the media was powerful too and I recall Mr Shauka Short-cut Aziz, promising that the accident report would be published. Mr Rahman Malick is saying the same thing now.
Sadly, we will talk about this with anguish for a few more days to come and then when our pain has lessened we will move on. That is human nature after all.Recommend
Regarding EGPWS, it is an effective system but it has certain limitations. The device is made mainly for warning against altitude loss, over land but if the pilot is flying into a mountain range then even if it works the pilot might not have enough time to pull up the plane vertically to clear the mountains specially if the pilot already has lost its spatial awareness and does not know whether the mountains are ahead or below.
About the Data recorders, they must be found. There is no excuse for not finding them. If they are not found then, there is foul play at hand, no doubt about it. And as per ICAO rules, Pakistan is not allowed to even open the boxes as they must be returned to the manufacturer of the aircraft, in this case EADS of EU, and all the investigation will be done there. I hope sincerely that they will publish the whole data on the net just like they do publish it for other airline accidents. So that every one knows whose mistake it was.Recommend
I am unable to understand why we are after pilot. Be patient and wait for the investigation report by airbus industries. They are the best judge to give explanation.Recommend
But why do we let go things, Meekal sb. ? Why not tp persue it to the end, what if someone invokes the “Free and Fair superior Courts” ? after all, every thing is being refered to it now a days…isan’t it ?Recommend
@Shahbanoo Amer,
Yes, I know a bit about air accidents and “multiple causes”. It is a chain of events and then the link breaks.
I know the ILS is on 30 while 12 has the “back-course” approach which is non-precision.
What I said was it was my sense (I am actually sure) that he used the standard ILS 30 approach and then broke off to circle-to-land on 12, the OPPOSITE runway. That is the procedure. Because of the proximity of high ground you need to keep her pretty tight and close and you MUST be visual at all times. If you lose visual reference with the ground you need to immediately go-around. Nose up, follow the Flight Directors, full power, gear up, Flaps 2, straight ahead. Just get out of there and go to Lahore or into the standard holding pattern and think about it and brief your co-pilot on what you want to do next. No hurry.
I think the maximum he should go out is some 2 miles or so. He crashed at 9 miles according to a Google map someone made on a forum. What was he doing there?
@Zafar, “we are after pilot” as you put it because he is the aircraft commander. The buck stops with him. He flew a bad approach and killed everyone. It happens even to 25,000 hour pilots.
Regarding EGPWS, assuming they did not have it inhibited they would have got multiple warnings. The Margalla hills are not a sheer cliff. It has slopes and valley’s. They would have got “Terrain Ahead!”, then “Terrain! Terrain!” and finally “Pull-Up”!, “Pull-Up!”, which would be repeated right till impact.
Just the wreckage alone will/should show the position of the throttles and you can tell from the engines whether they were developing full power or not. If they were he was in go-around mode but did not make it.Recommend
In spite of the wall-to-wall coverage of this crash by the meida, I haven’t seen a recent picture of the pilot so far. Not in the papers I get to read on the Internet, including this paper. (I don’t have access to Pak news channels.) Has anyone?Recommend
Type in ‘History of PIA’ on Google and go to forums and select the first forum. Then read the thread about the accident and as you go through a few pages you will find pictures of the entire crew (and also pictures of the A321 as well). Some of the discussion in the forum is quite good. Some quite silly.Recommend
In spite of the wall-to-wall coverage of this crash by the meida, I haven’t seen a recent picture of the pilot so far. Not in the papers I get to read on the Internet, including this paper. (I don’t have access to Pak news channels.) Has anyone?
AA
1 hour agoRecommend
Thanks, Mikal, for pointing to the PIA Forum. I did find the picture. Actually, my interest was triggered by Amina Jilani’s comment posted earlier.Recommend
Sorry, for misspelling the name. I meant Meekal.Recommend
You are most welcome AA.Recommend
Oh, AA, anything you may have wanted to ask about flying but were afraid to ask, ask me!
I think that comes from the name of a book!
Kind regards.Recommend
@Mr. Salman Ansari,
I did not see your remarks earlier. You are hard on my quickness to apportion blame. You are right to feel that way and I respect your feelings.
My excuse for shooting from the hip (as it must seem to you) is that I have read much over the years and I can see patterns. The tell-tale signs are there. This is not morbid curiosity on my part but a passion for air safety — all over the world.
When I heard about the Polish President’s crash I instinctively thought ‘pilot-error’. Now that the CVR and DFDR are out my instinct has been validated. It was a lot worse than I had thought because there was the Polish Air Force Chief standing in the cockpit insisting that he land because they had that important ceremony to attend. That is criminality.
When I heard of the Turkish airline 737-800 crash at Amsterdam on approach, I thought the same. The Netherland authorities have published their report with the data from the DFDR and CVR and someone made a very good dramatic video of the accident. The Turkish pilot’s association has disputed the findings and tried to blame it on a faulty altimeter. Its a long complicated story but suffice to say whatever the contributory cause, you don’t allow an aircraft to get so slow on approach as to STALL (meaning basically she could not fly anymore) and you don’t wait a full NINE seconds after the stall to apply full power! You are not going to make it because you are too low.
When I heard an Ethiopian 737-800 — a beautiful, highly-sophisticated aircraft with a full glass-cockpit plunge into the sea after take-off from Beruit, I had the same instinctive thought. Weather or no weather, planes don’t simply fall out of the sky.
When I read of the Air India Express 737-800 crash at Manglore, I thought the same. The report is not out yet, but I know what the facts will show.
When I heard that an Air France Airbus A330-200 fell into the Atlantic between Rio and Paris…….well…by now you know what thought went through my mind. An aircraft cruising at FL370 (37,000 feet) does not end up at the bottom of the Atlantic — even though he was going through some heavy weather at the time. Well, so was a lot of other traffic going both ways. The captain Marc Dubois was probably in the crew rest area at the time (4 hours into a 9 1/2 hour flight) so they were two co-pilots in the cockpit. They had 37,000 feet of cushion to play with. They must have done something very wrong because the aircraft pancaked onto the surface of the Atlantic with the force of 36G’s.
I could go on but I hope you get my point.
The A321 in question is a modern aircraft with the best avionics and systems known to man. While we know speed is constrained by the sound barrier I think we may have reached the limits of sophistication in the cockpit and aircraft systems. They couldn’t be better. Boeing’s new 787 or that monster Super Jumbo the Airbus A380 may have a different look and feel in their cockpits but there are no real break-throughs. My point being, this is a damn good and safe aircraft.
It does not, Sir, fly itself into a mountain unless you (inadvertently) point it there.Recommend
Since the unfortunate plane was too new & modern, so chances of it to have fatally malfunctioned are rather low … and my instinctive feeling is also that it seems to be a human error by the pilot / co-pilot of ATC.
However I sincerely hope that unlike in the past, this time around there should be proper & transparent investigation to find out the real reason of this disaster. I am sure it must also be in the interest of Airbus & all the airlines in the world, and since this being the worst aviation accident in Pakistan, we may see some credible investigation report in the coming months.
May Allah Almighty bless the departed souls & give courage & resolute to the grieving families for the unbearable loss – ameen.Recommend
Mr. Meekal Ahmed, you stated that, “Two aircraft ahead of the A321 broke off their approaches and diverted to Lahor” … however I read a letter in yesterday’s The News (http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=253763) from a passenger of PIA’s flight PK 356 from Lahore to Islamabad, who said that his plane landed at Islamabad at 0930 hrs – 20 mins before the Airblue’s crash! There seems to be contradiction!
There is a total confusion as our media is reports lot of things which later turn out to be false (e.g. survivors were found). Likewise the so called last conversation from ATC to Airblue’s flight seems to be a hoax!
I hope our media acts more responsibly, especially for such sensitive stories, if not always!Recommend
Without investigations we can do nothing!! Wat’s the use of just guesses and speculations when we dont know the real cause of the accidents?? In this way we( especially the govt) r just gonna console the inflicted families and as the past represents , gonna forget!! it’s a shamble if we still are not serious about the investigations! we have been doing such mistakes and DOING A MISTAKE IS NOT THE MISTAKE BUT REPEATING THAT MISTAKE IS THE ACTUAL MISTAKE!!Recommend
In the name of Allah I appeal to the so-called experts appearing on the electronic media not to pour salt on the scars of bereaved families by unnecessarily blaming the well experienced Pilot for the tragedy. We would all do well to remember that the family of the pilot is included amongst the bereaved in this tragedy, and that jumping to conclusions before any evidence is only hurtful and insensitive, as it serves no productive purpose whatsoever.Recommend
Our high-decorated fighter pilot Sajjad “Nosey” Haider says the A321 went by him under full-power and in a climb. He must have got a terrain warning from the GPWS and was in go-around mode. Obviously too late.
@Salman Zafar,
I stand to be corrected. However, as I stated the weather can change very quickly.
I am sure the so-called ATC recordings are a hoax. As I said it sounded very unprofessional.
@Janjua,
Experienced pilots make mistakes too. Capt. Choudhry may have had 25,000 hours but not many in-type — meaning on the A321. Whether that is significant or not I can’t say. Sometimes it is.Recommend
This is a tragic accident, which could have been avoided, had both the pilots and ATC followed the procedures. Unfortunately accidents occur because human beings are involved and they tend to make mistakes. In a way the advanced technology has made the crew complacent, because these aircrafts have been built to perfection. Things go wrong when somebody does not follow a procedure, be it the ATC, or the pilot, or if the aircrafts are not being properly maintained. The machine can also go wrong. This is where the CAA comes in. In the case of ED 202, circumstancial evidence points to human error. The Black Box has been found. It was, where it was supposed to be, in the tail section. What a coincidence, it was found within an hour of arrival of Airbus engineers at the crash site. This reflects poorly on the competence level of the search team, the investigators, and even the CAA. Our aviation industry has suffered, not because of lack of new technology aircraft, but the tools that are needed to regulate this industry and the mindset that still insists on putting a veil over every accident, to cover up and not reveal. It is our sick archaic cultural hangups that are the impediment. Take any incident involving a Pakistani airline and the first reaction is denial or distortion of facts. Just view the contradictory reports on the recent incident involving a PIA aircraft (Pk302) which had engine failure on 30 July. The airline spokesman said that a bird hit during taxi caused the engine damage, while the fact is that the aircraft was on the take off roll. It is now reported that there were two engine failures. You cant blame the press, afterall 152 people have lost their lives.Recommend