Air India IX-212 just 2 minutes from crashing into sea !
Dubai flight was just 2 minutes from crashing into sea - India - The Times of India
some excerpts from the article ..
MUMBAI: It was disaster averted by less than two minutes.
Initial investigations have revealed that the May 26 Air India Express Dubai-Pune flight IX-212 was less than two minutes away from plunging into the Arabian Sea. It had plummeted dangerously from an altitude of 37,000 feet when its commander was away from the cockpit, in the washroom, leaving the first officer to man the controls. The aircraft's nose was down to a minus-23-degree angle because of which its descent rate increased rapidly and went up to 21,000 feet per minute even as the overspeed warning blared loudly in the cockpit.
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The incident puts a huge question mark on the training given by Air India Express, especially to its first officers. The first officer had 1,000 hours of flying experience on the Boeing 737 aircraft which, say aviation safety experts, is quite adequate to handle a situation like this.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the incident. "The aircraft plunged at speeds beyond its maximum limit. The recovery would have stressed the structure abnormally. This would require special investigations to be carried out on the aircraft after landing," said an air safety expert. It was not known whether the aircraft was grounded following this incident.
