Thursday 3 June 2010

என்னவோ நடக்குது மர்மமாயிருக்குது

Dubai flight was just 2 minutes from crashing into sea
Posted on 6/2/2010
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.

That was the scene the commander walked into after his loo break. A few minutes before that, the Boeing 737 had entered Indian air space and was cruising over the Arabian Sea. The airplane was on autopilot at 37,000 feet when the commander handed it over to the first officer and walked out closing the cockpit door behind him. According to sources, the commander realized something was wrong when he returned from the washroom and did not get any response after he pressed the cockpit's door-unlock button (it sets off a chime inside the cockpit and the pilot sitting inside responds by pushing a button which opens the door). By this time the commander also realized that the aircraft was at an unusual pitch attitude (a pitching movement is nose up-nose down motion of an aircraft and a nose-down pitch increases air speed). Sensing danger, the commander punched in the emergency code, which opens the cockpit door, but only after 35 seconds.

"On entering the cockpit, he was shocked when he saw the Primary Flight Display, which displays information on altitude, vertical speed (in this case rate of descent) and the air speed. It showed the aircraft's nose was down by minus 23 degrees, due to which it was flying at 0.88 Mach," said the source. Mach One is the speed of sound and therefore 0.88 Mach is 88% the speed of sound, which was well beyond the operating limit speed of most passenger aircraft. The loud aural alarm or the clacker, in aviation parlance, which blares continuously giving an overspeed warning was on. "Such a high speed could lead to structural failure of the aircraft and to recover from such a situation safely requires exceptional pilot skills," he said adding that the commander appeared to have displayed remarkable skill in following the textbook "jet upset recovery procedure".

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 abnormal 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. 
news taken from http://www.indiansinkuwait.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=5694&SECTION=0

7 comments:

எல் கே said...

:((((

Anonymous said...

am glad he'd saved the day somehow.

meenakshi said...

மரணத்தின் விளிம்பை தொட்டு திரும்பி இருக்கிறது. எவ்வளவு பேரோட வாழ்கை பாதி நேரம் விமான பயணத்திலேயே செலவாயிண்டு இருக்கு. இந்த மாதிரி எல்லாம் நடந்தா?? இனி எல்லா விமான பயணமும் திகில் பயணம்தான் போல இருக்கு.

Unknown said...

hats off to the commander. may be they shud ground all air india aircrafts and close the airlines down..

அப்பாவி தங்கமணி (சஹானா இணைய இதழ்) said...

Oh god, this is real scary. They should be more vigilant I guess

அப்பாதுரை said...

ஏர் இந்தியா யூனியன் லீடர் உங்கள ரொம்ப விசாரிச்சதா சொன்னாரு சாந்தி; உங்க அட் ரெஸ் கூட கேட்டாருனா பாருங்களேன் !

Unknown said...

// ஏர் இந்தியா யூனியன் லீடர் உங்கள ரொம்ப விசாரிச்சதா சொன்னாரு சாந்தி; உங்க அட் ரெஸ் கூட கேட்டாருனா பாருங்களேன் !//

union leader?? no problem. பரிசு கொடுத்தா நாங்க வாங்கிக்கறோம்..வேற ஏதாவது கொடுத்தா அப்படியே சிகாகோவுக்கு வழி காட்டிடறோம்..