A passenger plane carrying 190 passengers had crashed at the Calicut airport in the south Indian state of Kerala. Now, an investigation has concluded that the accident may have been caused by ‘human error’.
Air India Express was bringing 190 passengers from Dubai to India as part of repatriation flights during the time of the Covid pandemic. During landing, the Boeing 737 skidded off the runway in the rain and crashed into two halves. 21 people, including both the pilots, were killed in the accident and about 75 passengers were injured.
The plane was trying to land repeatedly in bad weather. The first attempt was aborted because the pilots could not find suitable conditions to land the aircraft. However, in their last attempt, investigators claim, the pilots committed several violations. A report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau claimed that pilots did not have “sufficient briefing” for landing with tailwind in bad weather.
Experts believe that “failure to quickly calculate accurate landing data in adverse weather conditions” caused the fatal crash. The report claimed that the windshield wipers of the aircraft were also not working properly. In addition, the pilots also “failed to make a mandatory declaration for the cabin crew to be seated on first approach to landing.
This is a very serious lapse and compromises the cabin crew.” According to experts, human errors and system failures contributed to the crash of the plane. “This is generally due to the prevailing safety culture,” the report said. which lead to errors, mistakes and violations of routine operations committed by the people working within the system.