US-Bangla plane crash: Pilot error vs tower error

Nepal probe says pilot had ‘emotional breakdown’ before deadly crash; Caab points at confusing communications by Kathmandu airport control

The captain of a US-Bangla plane “seemed to have an emotional breakdown” before a deadly crash last March, Nepali investigators said in a final report on the fatal crash published today.

They blamed the crew’s loss of situational awareness for the crash of the US-Bangla Airlines flight to the Nepali capital from Dhaka that caught fire while landing at Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi investigators said that if the air traffic control (ATC) of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport performed their duties properly then the crash could have been averted.

The ATC did not perform their duties properly and this aspect of the incident did not come out in the final investigation report, Captain Salahuddin M Rahmatullah, head of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Group of CAAB, said at a press briefing this afternoon, hours after the Nepali authorities published the report.

According to the report, compiled by Nepali officials, the probable cause of the crash was the pilot’s disorientation and loss of situation awareness.

Captain Salahuddin, also a member of the investigation team, said that he will urge the Nepali authorities to include these aspects (about ATC performance) as an appendix to the report.

There was a “mistake” from the part of the pilot, but if the ATC had addressed it properly then that mistake could have been corrected, he added.

CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Naim Hassan was also present among others at the press briefing held at the CAAB headquarters in Dhaka.

Earlier in the day, the Nepali investigators in the final report on the Himalayan nation's worst aviation disaster in 26 years said that the captain of a Bangladeshi aeroplane “seemed to have an emotional breakdown” before the crash, Reuters adds.

The flight of US-Bangla Airlines from Dhaka crashed at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on March 12, 2018 that left 51 people -- 28 Bangladeshi, 22 Nepalese and one Chinese national – dead and 20 others were injured.

“The pilot thought he could maneuver the aircraft and land. But he could not,” panel official Buddhisagar Lamichhane, told Reuters on Monday, referring to the captain.

The captain was under stress and “emotionally disturbed” because he felt that a female colleague who was not on board the fatal flight had questioned his reputation as a good instructor, Nepal’s Accident Investigation Commission said in the report.

“This, together with the failure on the part of both the crew to follow the standard operating procedure at the critical stage of the flight, contributed to the loss of situational awareness,” the report, submitted late on Sunday, said.

This lack of awareness meant the crew did not realise the deviation of the aircraft, a Bombardier Inc Q400 turboprop, from its intended path, which in turn meant they could not sight the runway, it added.

Having missed the runway, the crew was flying very low north of it in an incorrect position near hilly and mountainous terrain around the airport, it said.

“Finally, when the crew sighted the runway, they were very low and too close to (it) and not properly aligned,” added the report, saying the captain should have halted the landing and initiated a go-around.

The plane skidded off the runway on to surrounding grass, quickly catching fire. Both pilots were among those killed.

US-Bangla Airlines expects to make an official statement later on Monday, Chief Executive Imran Asif said.

MENTAL HEALTH

The flight’s captain, aged 52, was released in 1993 from the Bangladeshi Air Force because he suffered from depression but was later declared fit to fly civilian aircraft, the report said, with recent medical reports mentioning no symptoms.

Citing the voice recorder and the eyewitness accounts of passengers, the report said the captain was smoking in the cockpit during the flight and “engaged in unnecessary, unprofessional and lengthy conversation even in the critical phase,” violating the norm of maintaining a sterile cockpit.

He shared the cockpit with a female first officer, 25, who had a total of just 390 hours of flying experience and had never previously landed at Kathmandu as crew, the report said, contradicting a US-Bangla spokesman who last year said she had made landings there before.

Landing at Kathmandu airport, which is surrounded by hills, is considered difficult. In 1992, all 167 on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land.

On the US-Bangla flight, the disparity in experience and added authority of the captain probably deterred the first officer from being more assertive during significant phases such as the final approach and landing, the report said.

The report recommended that the airline emphasise proper crew resource management and set up a mechanism to monitor and assess the mental status of the crew regarding professional development, financial, personal and psychological issues.

Pilot mental health was spotlighted by a 2015 crash in Europe after a Germanwings first officer deliberately flew a jet into a mountainside.

Last year, the European Commission adopted new rules on the mental health of pilots, for the first time requiring airlines to do a psychological assessment before hiring them.