Originally Posted by
John_Reid
Yes very sad indeed. R.I.P.
Not to take anything away from the deceased or speculate on the cause of this tragedy, I wonder if the pilot's were test pilots. I.E., production test pilot's from the factory? If they weren't they should have been. I do admire the attitude of the AME's having the courage to be on board. However a test pilot/pilot's would have had the appropriate engineering qualifications. Insurance companies would need to look at this, if they already haven't. If a Learjet series aircraft, for example, was to have certain leading edge devices replaced or adjusted,, a factory test pilot must carry out a flight test, prior to normal operations.
Read somewhere the aircraft had 6 years of major work carried out on it and hadn't flown for 9 years. You can guarantee there would have been a stack of paperwork (at least as high as the building it almost hit) associated with the aircraft, before the DGCA would have even thought about letting it get airborne.. "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link". .As mentioned above, WX needs to be good before carrying out such a venture.
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Can you explain why they should have been production test pilots from the factory? In the countries I have worked never has that been the case and in most cases they wont have the required licence to fly in said country. Where do we find the requirement for the Lear jet requiring a factory test pilot (not saying it is not false - only ever done a minor inspection on one)?
I read that it had major damage repairs over a 6 year period, if it were something like a gear up landing the repairs could be done in several months but costs of engines and props would be expensive. Since it was done over 6 years I expect it was a project job (keep the workers busy when quite times happen).
If the aircraft was not deregistered the paperwork would not be that bad - DGCA would not even need to be informed the aircraft was going to be flying again (unless they have an annual requirement like some countries do to have a DGCA inspector inspect the aircraft).