The tragic aircrash at Mangalore which resulted in the loss of 158 lives, with 8 miraculously escaping the tragedy speaks volume of the risk involved in safe landing. This tragedy is close to my heart because of the simple reason that the airport is situated so close to my roots at Derebail.
Various speculations are rife regarding the cause of the tragedy, some of them are as follows :
Table top airport, like Bajpe is receipe for disaster, but 32000 odd landings since1951 proves otherwise.
Pilot error seems to be the cause of the crash, switch over at the last minute couldbe the cause from main pilot to co-pilot.
Safe landing diktat from AI bosses must have forced pilot to float precariouslyat high speed before attempting a landing.
ATC hints at communication break with the pilot, which has disabled them fromwarning about overshooting the landing point.
At 200 km speed the pilot would have had approximately 40 secs to control thethe aircraft, which is sufficient time to apply the brake.
The tyre burst would have caused the plane to veer uncontrollably.
Applying brakes at high speed was definitely a receipe for disaster.
A semi wet airstrip too would have caused skidding to a large extent.
According to my judgement the aircraft had landed beyond the threshold limit of 700 feet, The landing would be close to 4000 feet beyond specification which would have reduced the response time to 20 seconds, which is too close to comfort zone for any pilot to manauovre. Ultimately it is the front tyre burst which had caused the tragedy, which made braking and skidding a sure shot reason for the disaster. Ulitmately it seems nature and mechanical failure have conspired for this aircraft disaster. The black box would only reinforce this theory. If the airplane had landed within the threshold limit and with tyre bursting it would have probably put the airport terminus in danger, either way disaster was waiting to happen due to mechanical failure.
It is very easy to blame the pilot for such a disaster, who would like to survive every flight for sake of his family. I am sure the pilots would be exonerably discharged from the blame game which is currently going on.In the meanwhile we are with the families of those who have lost their near and dear ones in the tragedy. The destiny smiled on the lucky 8 who miraculously escaped from the disaster. The plane bursting into flame consumed the majority lives, who could have escaped like the lucky 8 despite the disaster. But destiny had its say. May god bless the departed souls. RIP.ACK : Deccan herald news, analysis independent.