More to fatal flight than meets the eye

By Pranab Dhal Samanta

NEW DELHI, OCT. 1. The fateful few moments within which an aircraft well ensconced at 14,000 feet above Kanpur lay in flames on the swampy fields near Motta village in Mainpuri district on Sunday killing all its occupants including the senior Congress leader, Mr. Madhavrao Scindia, continued to flummox aviation authorities here on Monday more than 24 hours after the crash.

Even as officials went about the clinical procedure of setting up committees and sending teams to investigate the crash, not many dared to conjecture the circumstances that might have prevented the pilot from sending out an emergency message. While most officials at the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation here remained tightlipped, others were giving the benefit of the doubt to the pilot.

According to sources, it was not fully clear whether the pilot tried to communicate with the Air Traffic Control authorities at Agra and Chakeri. Since these ATCs are under the control of Indian Air Force, efforts to verify this possibility might take longer than usual.

In case no information is available from these two ATCs, the process of determining the cause of the crash could take much longer. The possibility that may then be considered most likely would be the aircraft encountering bad weather after one of its engines caught fire.

Elaborating this, a senior pilot here said that if one of the aircraft engines caught fire in bad weather, the pilot -- carrying a VIP as he was -- could have decided to glide the aircraft to a safe height. In the process of losing height, the plane could have run into cumulo-nimbus clouds making it difficult for the pilot to regain control.

However, not many were ready to go along with this scenario. It is understood that avoiding these clouds is part of the basic training of every pilot. Given that the pilot flying the aircraft had nearly 1,400 hours of flying experience, such a mistake is quite improbable, said other officials.

Further, the Jindal Strips CEO, Mr. Vikrant Gujral, today confirmed that Flight Captain Vivek Gupta, had been working with the company for nearly four years. Prior to joining Jindal, he worked with NEPC Airlines that folded up later.

The ill-fated King Air Beechcraft C-90 was bought second-hand by the company in 1997 and had been in regular use by its executives. While the aircraft had obtained all necessary clearances to undertake the flight, questions have been raised over the absence of a last-minute check of the pilot's credentials by the ATC. It is learnt that unlike in the past, the pilots no longer need to attend a briefing at the ATC. Part of the "Open Skies Policy" which eased the procedures of obtaining flight path clearances, it is no longer necessary for the ATC to verify whether the pilots are adequately trained to fly.

Though many applaud the decision to do away with the need for the pilot to be physically present for a briefing at the ATC, officials say an alternate method to verify the pilots' credentials need to be put in place. As of now, no such procedures are in place.

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