Aviation Safety: Lessons from Air India Express

This assignment examines the tragic 2010 Air India Express Flight 812 crash in Mangalore, highlighting the factors that led to the accident, including pilot error, sleep inertia, and a lack of radar. It analyzes safety violations identified by investigations and discusses the importance of proactive measures, crew resource management, and independent safety organizations to prevent similar incidents in the future.

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On 22nd May 2010, the Air India Express Flight 812 bound from Dubai to Mangalore
overshot the runway while landing and hit the airport boundary fence and fell into the gorge. Due
to error in planning descent profile properly, the incident occurred and it resulted in massive
wreckage as the airline caught fire and 152 passengers and all 6 crew members died in the
accident. Only 8 people survived the accident. Investigations also revealed that there was no sign
of bird strike nor any sabotage (Belgaunkar, Govind). In terms of severity, the accident was the
third deadliest aviation accident in India. The investigation reports on the case revealed that
safety violation was the main cause of accident as plane landed 610 m beyond the actual touch
down point. The accident could have been prevented if the pilot had applied manual braking at
touchdown and did not attempted long landing. Other safety violations that occurred was that
flight captain was in prolonged sleep during the flight leading to sleep inertia and impaired
judgment. Secondly, the absence of the Mangalore Area Control Radar also contributed to the
accident (Indian Air Force).
Although passenger aircraft have strict safety requirement, however still safety provisions
is violated by many airlines. This might occur due to ambiguity in giving instructions to the crew
members regarding flight safety, crew resource management and poor judgment in emergency
cases. There is less focus on taking proactive measures to address flight safety related issues too
(Maurino, Daniel et al). Having an independent safety organization could have minimized such
incidents.
Link: http://dgca.nic.in/accident/reports/VT-AXV.pdf

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Reference
Belgaunkar, Govind. "158 Killed As Plane Crashes At Mangalore." 2017,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/158-killed-as-plane-crashes-at-Mangalore/
article16303394.ece.
Indian Air Force 2017."Report On Accident To Air India Express." 2017,
http://dgca.nic.in/accident/reports/VT-AXV.pdf.
Maurino, Daniel E., et al. Beyond aviation human factors: Safety in high technology systems.
Routledge, 2017.

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