Accidents and Hysteria
Hi! All,
Been reading through all the posts here and found some measured, some bodering on hysteria and a lot completely unrelated to the issue at hand. I would like to add a few sane comments to all those flying about here.
Just to give you a background to my comments
1. I am a Line Captain; one of those low time ones to be precise.
2. Have flow with lots of expats and Indians as p2 and p1
3. Have operated to and landed Mangalore several times (will have to check my log for an excat figure but atleast 10 or more; a few times in rain) ...
Issue 1 Mangalore Airport
Comment 1. The Mangalore airport usually gives you a DME arc approach which is not particularly challenging but you can end up high if you're not on the ball (situational awareness) or the FMGS is not properly programmed (yes I know that's obvious)
Comment 2. The runway length is sufficient; though not comfortable given the drop at the end of the runway. Hence, one always tends to ensure a touch down at or before the 1000 ft aiming point marker.
Comment 3. There is nothing about Mangalore that requires only Captains to be allowed to land there. Other than Air India; I am not aware of any other airline with this rule.
Issue 2 Cause of crash
Comment 1. Yes I would like to wait for the report and not indulge in wild speculation; but I know that the report will take many many months / years. In the mean time I would like to learn whatever I can for my own improvement.
Comment 2. To be hot and high or float down the runway in Mangalore is a terrible idea. Every crew member operating out of Mangalore knows that or is told by his compatriots ....... Hence, I cannot comprehend that this particular crew would attempt to land half way down the runway....
Comment 3. Lastly, I do not know what the AI Express policy towards go arounds is... their policy towards hard landings has been stated earlier and I believe it is a short sighted and wrong policy.
Comment 4. The maintance in Air India (won't hazard a guess about AI Express) is terrible.... In my experience the engineers are brilliant at paper work but terrible at the actually fixing any problems.... They don't follow the most basic of procedures laid down in the MEL or AMM or TSM. And they often ask pilots to defer defect entries into the tech log.
Based on the above, I would like to hazard the following:
1. It is probable the approach was unstable (crew could have become high without realising)
2. It is possible they might have floated (given the AI Express policy on hard landings)...
3. It is probable that a system failure degraded the braking capability / controlability of the aircraft on touchdown...
4. A combination of the 3 above coupled with the fact that Mangalore has a steep drop at the end of the runway resulted in the tragedy.
I would welcome any comments to substantiate or debunk the above...
Issue 3. Expat Pilots
Fact 1. They are in India because there was a severe shortage of pilots in India and the growth of the industry was suffering.
Fact 2. They get paid more than Indians with equivalent experience. This leads to resentment.
Fact 3. Expats come to India because they dont have jobs that pay them anything similar in their home countries.
Fact 4. If expat pilots had to go though a Class I Indian Medical; atleast 60 % would be grounded. This also leads to resentment.
Fact 5. The following incidents in India had expat Captains (this is not a complete or precise list; just a guessimate please feel free to add or substract)
1. Air Deccan ATR bounced / hard landing at old bangalore airport. Aircraft beyond economical repair. (African Capt)
2. Jet Airways ATR at Indore. Runway overrun. Multiple injuries and Aircraft beyond economical repair.(Not sure of nationality but not Indian)
3. Jetlite 737 runway overrun in Mumbai. Runway 27 closed for 2 days (dont remember excatly)(South American)
4. Kingfisher ATR incident at Mumbai in 2009. (Not sure of nationality but not Indian)
Comment 1. The free movement of goods and labour is benifical to all concerned. (If Indians want to work in the Gulf and the US; then others can want to work in India). I support it; So yes I support expat pilots.
Comment 2. For all those expats (& I've seen a few on pprune) who keep cribbing about how terrible India is in general and how unsafe it etc etc... Please leave.. Nobody is forcing you to fly in India; you are here 'cause the money is good.
Comment 3. As a P2 I flew with expats from around the world and I believe I am a better pilot today because of it. I have learnt enormously from them and their experience. The majority of them have huge amounts of experience and they gave me the benifit of it.
I can see that difference when I compare notes with my collegues for different airlines.
Comment 4. However, there are also a set of Expats that fly in a manner beyond comprehension. Among them are
(a) no go around captains; who boast they have never gone around.
(b) do 360 turns on finals below 1500 ft. (specificly banned in India after the Patna crash)
(c) Never flare. (this is not made up) Expat captain with more than 15000 hrs; beat all records for hard landings.
That being said, I have seen plenty of Indian captains do the same.
What I am trying to say is that it is capability not nationality that is important. Certain Indian pilots do resent the expats and certain expats make it a pet hobby to crib about India.
Let's just get over it and get on with our jobs.