ManaAdaSystem – you are quite right about some terrible controlling by Indian civil ATC controllers – I remember a recent air-test in a helicopter at a small civil airfield – we were climbing to FL 100 and were given a climb radial exactly reciprocal to the Instrument runway! Had to explain a few times on the R/T before the controller agreed to change the sector of ops. The controller’s situational awareness appeared pretty limited and was saturated with just 2-3 arrivals and departures (evident from the somewhat disjointed R/T calls and erratic controlling). There were other occasions during my interactions as Chief of Operations of an IAF base in the northeast – the operating IAF squadrons found some controllers were downright thick-headed, stubborn and impractical. However, on the plus side there were a few chaps who were willing, enthusiastic and proved themselves quite capable of handling fighter aircraft during their periodic deployment at the airfield – not a mean feat that especially as we had the older Type-69 Mig-21’s with terrifying approach speeds and steep approach angles! Personally, I would put it down to poor levels of training, motivation and lack of leadership.
On the other hand, you both seem to be quite terribly sure of yourselves, are'nt you, ManaAdaSystem & White Knight ?? Well, I have been witness to the almost comical sight of the rolling nose-wheel of an ATR overtaking the aircraft after it had broken away post a PIO induced heavy landing at HAL airport, Bangalore.
And YES – the pilot was an ‘expat’.Check out the civil aviation accidents in India in past few years – unfortunately most of them involve expats.
However, the main point about aircrash investigations is
objectivity and finding the exact reasons for the accident. So let’s just step back a bit from our pre-conceived ideas and prejudices and wait for the exact reasons to emerge shall we? Anything else and we won’t be the professionals that we claim to be.