Pilots made scapegoats in air crash probe. (India)

The New Indian Express

Posted on Sep 04, 2011 at 01:17pm IST

KOCHI: The sole objective of an aircraft accident or incident investigation is the prevention of future accidents and incidents and not to apportion blame or liability.

A well-conducted investigation should, therefore, identify all immediate and underlying causes of an accident and recommend appropriate safety actions aimed at avoiding the hazards or eliminating the deficiencies, thus says the Procedure Manual of Accident/incident investigation of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Bible of air accident investigators in India.

That being the norm, why was the blame for the Mangalore air crash put on its captain Zlatco Glusica, the pilot in command of ill-fated Air India Express flight IX 812.

From the very beginning of the 11-month-long investigation and up to its conclusion in April this year, the investigation team was taking all steps directly and indirectly to lay the blame squarely on the pilots of the aircraft. The flying programme of Air India Express from May 17, 2010, to May 23, 2010, is clearly new evidence which the investigation team perhaps had ignored, said Jacob Philip, an aviation expert who has studied the accident in depth. A graduate in civil engineering, Jacob now works as a senior project engineer with Kitco.

According to the flying programme, the name of the First Officer of the Dubai-Mangalore flight on May 21, 2010, can be read as H S Ahluwalia. But in the column of the commander, it is written TRG meaning training. Why was the actual name of the pilot in command not printed? Flights to and from Dubai (flight no 811 & 812) were supposed to be training flights. Ahluwalia was due for Commander-level promotion. It may have been so because Air India Express people were undecided about the person when the schedule was prepared. Did they fill that gap with Capt Glusica, a Serbian who had returned to India only on May 18 after a vacation at home, said Jacob, a former journalist of ‘Malayala Manorama.’ Jacob now edits www.indianaviationnews.net, a web publication on aviation-related matters.

Jacob feels Capt Glusica was deputed to command Flight IX 812 a few hours earlier. Glusica, who was not aware of the sudden change in schedule, may not have slept the previous day. Moreover, he may not have been physically fit after a long journey post-vacation. The flying programme is material for reopening the investigation, Jacob said.

There was a planned attempt by a committee appointed by the Government of India to subvert the truth; to let at least three agencies - Air India, Airports Authority of India and the Boeing Company - off the hook; to hold the pilots alone responsible for the tragic incident, Jacob Philip said.

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