Chapter 6 CHALLENGES OF AIR TRAVEL

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1 126 Chapter 6 CHALLENGES OF AIR TRAVEL The Aviation industry is certainly one of the marvels of our age. The maximum number of foreign travelers who come to India, use air transport because it is one of the most recognized and convenient mode of transports. But in spite of this thrill, fascination and convenience it has been found by serious research studies, that one in every twenty of these passengers who travel by air has a morbid fear of dying in an air crash. 1 There are very serious and cogent reasons for this apprehension. The hazards in air travel are many and critical. They may be disasters, technical failures and even human error. The problem of weather, miscalculation by various instruments like instrument landing system and precision Approach Radar, and the pilots error of judgement can be individually and collectively responsible for all kinds of tragedies caused by the air crashes. The repercussions of an air accident which takes place in any part of the globe are many and they are broadcasted and widely televised. The newspapers publish the names and the photographs of the victims and tributes are paid to the deceased persons who die in the air crash. The police reach on the spot and struggles with the burnt out wreckage. The government of the country where

2 127 the disaster takes place usually announces an enquiry into the circumstances leading to the accident. This often results into a sudden decline in the number of travelers. The Air Insurance starts picking up, but as the time rolls on things return to normal. 2 People forget the past and begin to think that next to the bus and the railway train, civil aviation is the safest and the quickest means of reaching all the places in the world. History records the causes of air accidents in India are general as well as particular. Poor landing conditions on the metropolitan airports of the country are one of the main causes. Generally, whenever the landing conditions were not perfect the aeroplanes were diverted to the nearest airport or to an air strip as the cause may be by the Airport Control. The failure of the landing gear system has also led to fatal accidents. A defective instrument landing system often sends a bent wave which can result into disastrous accidents. The buildings and hills near the landing strip also affect the functioning of the instrument landing system beam. On Aug 12, 1972 a Fokker Friendship plane of Indian Airlines, guided by an Instrument landing system, undershot the Palam Airport and crashed after having taken a toll of eighteen passengers. In the Indian situation, the malfunctioning of the ILS has been one of the most serious reasons of the Fatal accidents of the last decade. 3

3 128 Take off and touchdown are the most critical operations in aviation. Most of the accidents generally had taken place either at the time of landing or at the point of taking off. The complications in level flying arise only when there is inclement weather. Here the Precision Approach Radar (PAR) is another important landing aid to the flight captain. The PAR, constitutes the second part of the ground control approach system. It helps and guides the pilot to the runway by communicating with him through verbal instructions. The PAR enables the pilot to obtain directions and altitude for landing during the final approach until the plane touches down. The radar controller can set right deviations by the aircraft. Preparation of Accurate Flight Plan Whenever the flight time was recorded incorrectly, the negligence had caused fatal accidents. For instance, if a fifty min flight is recorded as forty five minutes, a pilot might begin to descend five minutes earlier and find himself landing in troubled waters. Sometimes wrong recording had resulted in grave consequences. Similarly Over loading had been a contributory factor, which resulted in giving an excessively heavy tail to the air craft.

4 129 The Pilots Error Oversight, ill health and careless recordings of pilots had been some of the major causes for air crashes. It is argued that 50% of the accidents can be attributed to Pilots error of judgment which again may be due to the excessive number of flying hours required for professional licences. The pilot must report 30 min before the ETD to go through checking the MET clearance; radio communications and running through aircraft systems. The last check is too exhaustive to spread over twelve typed pages. That itself takes more than half an hour and naturally these checks are gone through in a taken fashion. Most of the pilots do not report for duty earlier than the prescribed time and check the columns in a routine manner. Some of them claim that they remain fresher and in normal state of mind if they do not go through this paper work and red tape on the ground, which may disturb this equilibrium and finally effect the capacity of the judgment. The pilot s error of judgment has generally been attributed as the major cause of air disasters in most of the reports produced after crash enquiries. The rules forbid the pilots to consume alcohol twelve hours prior to the take-off. They should be medically fit and must voluntarily ground themselves in the event of the slightest illness, ache or mental depressions. But the temptation of

5 130 the flying allowances, sometimes induce the pilots to take chance with their aircraft. Nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains are the occupational ailments. Diarrhoea, headache, drumming in the ears and deafness are also not very uncommon. 4 Indian pilots however do not complain of flying fatigue and have been generally free from heart trouble. Yet over straining oneself in long and tiring flights will impair judgments leading to causalities. The safety experts of Indian Airlines Corporation contend that unlike their counterparts in other world airlines who fly one type of aircraft, the Indian Pilots and the crew have to fly multiple varieties of aircraft. Moreover, they have to change their aircraft quite frequently and naturally. This has caused disorientation and difficulties. Then the organizational and procedural problem about the testing of competences of the pilot is there. The periodic supervision by their own colleagues acting as check pilots seems like an obvious anachronism of procedure which causes a great risk to safety of the craft and the crew. In the 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision, Saudia Arabian Airlines Flight 763 collided in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 on 12 November The cause was determined to be pilot error by the Kazakhstan Airlines pilot. All three hundred and fourty nine people onboard both flights were killed, making it the deadliest mid-air collision in history. 5 Indian Airlines

6 131 Flight 113 crashed on its final approach to Ahmedabad airport due to pilot error on 19 October 1988in this incident one hundred and thirty died. Indian Airlines Flight 257 crashed on descent into Imphal due to pilot error on 16 August 1991, killing all sixty nine occupants. Bird Hits Physical situations like bird hits and striking against vultures and kites damage and bring down aero planes. The 1972 report of the I.A.C. reports as many as fifteen accidents of the Indian Airlines crafts exclusively caused by collisions with birds. It can take as long as one month to repair an aircraft after a bird has slammed into it. If a four pound bird hits a plane cruising with a speed of 300 miles per hour, the force of its impact is heavy almost equivalent to a 14-ton load. At 600mph speed this force of impact goes up to 57 tons. Although the hazard of bird menace is a world wide phenomenon in aviation, India presents a special problem where dead animal carcases invite the birds and vultures to congregate near big airports and there exists a mass ignorance about the disasterous consequences. 6 Air Accidents in India One of the fatal accidents of Air India is a tragic crash which involved a super constellation costing forty eight lives of the passengers and the crew in

7 132 the Alps mountain over Switzerland in Nov In 1950 Air India Flight 245, a Lockheed Super Constellation (The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line). Crashed on a charter flight, which led to the loss of forty passengers and eight crews. Five years later another super constellation was destroyed in April 1955, over the south China sea.in January, 1966, Air India s Boeing 707 crashed on Mont Blanc with One hundred and seventeen passengers on board. The Air India has a relatively clean and safe record of air flights except the one tragic happening of Its toll was of course the heaviest yet the real and precise cause of accident does not bring any serious charge of maladministration on the organization of Air India. The Indian Airlines Corporation during the last one decade ( ) had been 10 crashes causing a loss of two hundred and sixty lives. On May 13, 1973 an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed near Delhi Palam airport. 7 The years 1964, 1967 and 1968 have been quite safe years for the Indian aviation administration during which no untoward incident was reported. The other fourteen accidents of Indian Airlines on domestic flights have taken a total toll of two hundred and ninety one lives in twelve years. This works out to an average loss of twenty four lives per year or twenty lives per accident. Only in

8 133 three cases the reasons for the crash have remained unknown or undetected. Moreover, out of the fourteen accidents the Delhi airport alone has claimed four accidents. 8 Then out of these four, two have been caused by undershot I.L.S approach error. The data reveal that all sorts of air craft have been involved in accidents at various airports due to varied reasons. This fact may be taken to imply that the kind of the aircraft has little to do with the safety of the craft and the accident situation in aviation. India lost some of the eminent personalites also along with the other passengers in the air crashes namely; India s topmost scientist Dr. H.J. Bhabha, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Some of the names of the eminent persons, who died in India or Indian flights include Dr. P.K. Ghosh, Shri Balwant Rey Mehta, Dr. K.K.P. Rao, Shri Mohan Kumar Mangalam and Sardar Gurnam Singh. 9 Dr. P.K. Ghosh, the Geologist and the Director of the Department of Atomic Energy of India died in a crash forty four miles from Dehra Dun onboard a twin engine Aero Commander. On June 19, 1960, Shri Balwant Ray Mahta, the former Chief Minister of Gujarat died in a plane crash in the Kutch district, which was alleged to have been shot down by a Pakistani aircraft during the hostilities of

9 134 Dr. K.K.P. Rao who was a distinguished Nutrition Expert of the F.A.O met his end along with eighty four others in a JAL DC- crash near Delhi on June 14, Two months later Mrs. Minimata, a Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh fell a victim to the Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship crash in Delhi while it was trying to attempt an I. L.S landing. The plane undershot the runway and crashed into the outer market. Shri. Mohan Kumar Mangalam, the minister for steel and mines, Government of India died in an IAC Boeing 737 crash near Vasant Vihar on May 31, 1973 while trying to land at Palam airport. 11 The list of victims who lost their lives in this crash included Sardar Gurnam Singh, Former Chief Minister of Punjab and India s High Commissioner Designate in Australia, Shri Satish Loomba, General Secretary of the all India Trade Union Congress, Shri K. Baladandayudham, a CPI member of Parliament, and Mrs. Kausalya Narayanan, a noted Tamil Writer and Classical dancer. 12 Air India Flight 403 crashed on 21 June 1982 at Sahar International Airport in Bombay due to rough weather. Two crew members and fifteen passengers died, Ninety four survived. Air India Flight 855 crashed off the coast of Bandra, Bombay (now Mumbai) on 1 January 1978 when the captain became spatially disoriented after the failure of one of the flight instruments in

10 135 the cockpit. All Two hundred and thirteen aboard were killed. Alitalia Flight 771 crashed into a hill northeast of Mumbai during its approach on 7 July The accident was attributed to navigation error, all Ninety four aboard were killed. Alliance Air Flight 7412 crashed in a residential estate of Patna on 17 July 2000 after the pilot lost control of the aircraft and stalled. Fifty five people aboard died, along with five on the ground. The air crash selected records are as follows. Table:3 The Air Crashes Records of Indian Airlines Date Airline / Location Aircraft Type / Fatalities Registration Indian Airlines Douglas DC-3 22:22 Patharkot, India Indian Airlines Nagpur, India Indian Airlines Nagpur, India Indian Airlines Kathmandu, Nepal Indian Airlines Kathmandu, Nepal Indian Airlines Silchar, India Indian Airlines Sama, India VT ATS Douglas DC-3 VT CHF Douglas DC-3 VT CVB Douglas DC-3 VT DBA Douglas DC-3 VT CYN Douglas DC-3 VT CGI Douglas C-47 VT AUL 13:14 10:10 14:33 20:20 24:24 29:29

11 Indian Airlines Agra, India Indian Airlines Srinagar, India Indian Airlines Doulatpoor, Pakistan Indian Airlines Silcher, India Indian Airlines New Delhi, India Indian Airlines Bombay, India Indian Airlines Panvel, India Indian Airlines Ahmedabad, India Indian Airlines Bangalore, India Indian Airlines Imphal, India Indian Airlines Aurangabad, India Source: Indian Airlines Database Vickers Viscount 768D VT-DIO Fokker F-27 friendship PH-SAB Fokker F-27 friendship VT-DOJ Fokker F-27 friendship VT-DWT Boeing 737-2A8 VT-EAM Sud Aviation SE210 Caravelle VT-DWN Hawker Siddeley HS- 748 VT-DXJ Boeing 737-2A8 VT-EAH Airbus A VT-EPN Boeing 737-2A8 VT-EFL Boeing 737-2A8 VT-ECQ 18:18 37:37 44:44 39:39 48:65 95:95 45:45 124:129 92:146 69:69 55:118

12 137 Hijacking Indian Airlines Flight 814 (call sign IC-814) was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 enroute from Tribhuvan International Airport (Kathmandu, Nepal) to Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) when it was hijacked by five Pakistani nationals on 24 December Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, was held responsible for the hijacking. 13 The aircraft was hijacked by armed gunmen shortly after it entered Indian airspace at about 17:30 hours IST. After touching down in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, the hijackers forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The hijackers released twenty seven of one hundred and seventy six passengers in Dubai but fatally stabbed one and wounded several others. The Indian Airlines flight 814 (VT-EDW) was hijacked on Friday, 24 December 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian airspace the following were identified as hijackers by he Indian Government, Ibrahim Athar, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Karachi, Pakistan, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Karachi, Pakistan, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Karachi, Pakistan and Shakir, Sukkur, Pakistan. 14

13 138 Anil Sharma, the chief flight attendant on IC-814, later recalled that a masked, bespectacled man threatened to blow up the plane with a bomb and ordered Captain Devi Sharan to "fly West". The hijackers wanted Captain Sharan to divert the aircraft over Lucknow and head towards Lahore. But the Pakistani authorities quickly refused, as they were wary of being linked with the terrorists. Also, the fuel was not sufficient. Captain Sharan told the hijackers that they have to land in Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai, Kandahar respectively. After the three militants landed in Kandahar, the hostages aboard the flight were freed. On 31 December 1999, the freed hostages of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 were flown back to India on a special plane. 15 Indian Airlines Flight 427 was hijacked by a single individual on 24 April The hijacker demanded passage to Afghanistan, but was denied over flight permission by Pakistani authorities and the pilot diverted to Amritsar. The hijacker was killed after security forces stormed the aircraft. Indian Airlines Flight 491 crashed into a truck at the end of the runway while taking off from Aurangabad, Maharashtra on 26 April The cause was both pilot error and the failure of the aviation administration to control highway traffic. Fifty five people were killed. Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashed due to the pilot s error on its final approach to Bangalore airport on 14

14 139 February 1990, killing Ninety two people reported as hijack. Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists on 24 December 1999 while in Indian airspace. 16 The aircraft was flown to Kandahar, Afghanistan, one passenger was killed by the hijackers; the other One hundred and ninety two aboard were released. The natural, organizational, navigational and human factors individually and collectively contribute to the hazards of aviation as reflected in the chapter. The increase in air passenger traffic and the presence of special air hazards, including the mal-functioning of the navigational instruments at major airports of India indicate towards the nature of the gathering storm which may blow off in near future. Most of them are common in all countries of the world. With the help of navigational aids it is possible to conquer physical handicaps. Similarly the professional skills of the crew and the human efficiency of the ground control can minimize if not avert all disasters threatened by non-human situations. The lack of modernization of airports in the face of traffic congestion and overcrowding of aircraft and passengers at the runways and the terminals respectively pose special threats to aviation safety and navigational facilities. In a country like India where the vagaries of weather are enormous and the

15 140 sophisticated navigational aid equipment is yet to be installed on big airports the Traffic control administration has a more vital and a key role to play in ensuring air safety to the passengers. The leading airlines of the world which touch Indian airports present mounting and exacting demands on the aviation administration in terms of their own needs and professional standards. The aviation administration of India cannot afford to be apathetic to these standards of efficiency specially in view of their comparative and competitive standards. The problems of hijacking are not very special to India but India being located strategically on the geo-politic air map of the world has to plan for air safety with vision and foresight. The aviation administration in general and the airport management in particular should share the great part of responsibility of taking care of all the contributory factors posing threat to the security of the air passengers. The captain and the crew of the aircraft should be rigorously trained in flying operations. The preparation of accurate Flight Plan is conducive to the safety of the aircraft. The Flight Despatch Officers posted at the airports who have the responsibility to draw these plans should take the assignment quite seriously.

16 141 END NOTES, Chapter A.K. Sarkar, International Air Law and safety of Civil Aviation, Indian Journal of International Law, Vol.12, No.2, p Ibid, p.200. Note: with effect from 1 st April 1973, the compensation for deaths in domestic accidents has been raised from Rs. 42,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 for adults and from Rs.21,000 to 50,000 for children below 12 years. 3. Ministry of Civil Aviation, International Airports Authority of India, Vol.I, No.III, pp H.C.Ganguli and M.S.Prakash Rao, Human Factor Aspects of Aircraft Noise, Vikas Publications, New Delhi, Ministry of Civil Aviation, International Airports Authority of India, Vol.1, No.III, pp Ibid, p Annual Review, Civil Aviation in India, National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1966, p Ibid, p Ibid, p.17.

17 Annual Review, Civil Aviation in India, National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1974, p Ibid, p Indian Airlines, Annual Report, , New Delhi,p

WORST AVIATION ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INDIA AND INDIA-BASED AIRCRAFT

WORST AVIATION ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INDIA AND INDIA-BASED AIRCRAFT All accidents resulting in 20 or more deaths Date Location Aircraft Deaths Remarks Cause 11-12-1996 Haryana state Saudia B 747, 349 Incl