Indian carriers safe? Pilots' pranks endanger lives

Mumbai: In the recent past there have been several incidents in the Indian airline industry involving pilots and crew members, which has put the lives of hundreds of passengers in danger. The latest in the list is the false hijack alarm that was set off by the pilots of a Mumbai-bound Kingfisher Airlines.

Pilots of a Kingfisher flight from Hong Kong accidentally set off a hijack alarm while approaching the Mumbai airport on December 1. Sources said the aircraft was 10 miles from the airport when the alarm went off and the reason was a failure of the aircraft's radiotelephony system. However, according to a spokesperson for Kingfisher Airlines, the false alarm went off after the aircraft had landed at the airport. Also the cockpit crew of Kingfisher's flight IT 072 later clarified to Air Traffic Control (ATC) that the hijack alarm was false, triggered accidentally while switching frequencies for communication with ATC.

All aircraft have a special Squawk code frequency that is equivalent to a ship's SOS code at 121.5 MHz. According to a Kingfisher official, the hijack alarm code was triggered because its frequency is very close between two other frequencies in use.

On October 20, a prank played by check pilot almost crashed a Jet Airways flight in Mumbai. The incident happened, when the check pilot pulled out a circuit-breaker. He did it apparently to check the pilot's ability to handle an emergency.

The unthinking act set off a chain reaction, tripping the autopilot, making the flight director indications disappear and turning off the ground-proximity warning system. The aircraft went sinking at a rate faster than the maximum prescribed descent of 1,000 feet per minute over the hills behind Jarimari, Andheri, but - despite all this - the aircraft managed to make a safe landing, reports Times of India.

Jet Airways has ordered a probe. But it has not derostered the check pilot though both aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus have a strict policy warning flight crew against use of circuit-breakers during flight - they are not pulled even on a check or a test flight. A Jet Airways spokesperson said, "The flight had a normal approach and landing, carried out safely within the acceptable parameters. An internal inquiry is in progress."

There was another incident involving the cabin crew of Air India, who had a scuffle at 30,000 feet above sea level on October 3, which endangered the lives of 106 passengers and grossly violated safety norms. The airline staffers came to blows in the cockpit and galley of the Indian Airlines Airbus A-320 as the aircraft cruised over Pakistan en route to Delhi via Lucknow from Sharjah.

The cabin-versus-cockpit tiff originated on the ground in Sharjah itself and then turned into a full-blown fight once IC 884 took off soon after midnight. The cabin crew alleged that pilots harassed a 24-year-old female colleague who later filed a molestation complaint against them with the cops after the flight landed in Delhi. The pilots, on the other hand, accused a male flight purser of misconduct that seriously compromised flight safety, and said the accusation of molestation aimed to protect the complainant's purser friend - who has a commercial pilot licence (CPL)- from facing action.