One of the Air accidents more recent dates back to March 12, 2018. A Katmanduin Nepala Q400 bombardier who operated on the US-Bangla Airlines flight 211 He crashed during the landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport of destination, causing the death of 51 people, while the survivors were 20. Taking on the responsibilities of the tragedy took time and in -depth investigations, which led to a chilling truth.
The tragedy of the US-Bangla Airlines flight 211
The US-Bangla flight takes off from Dacca airport, in Bangladesh, at 12.52 hours. At the helm of the Bombardier Q-400 aircraft there are Captain Abid Sutan, a former Bengali Air Force driver with over 5 thousand hours of flight, and the first officer Prithula Rashid, 25 years old just hired by the company. The destination is Katmandu airport, there are 67 passengers on board and 2 cabin assistants.
Tribuvan International Airport stands on the slopes of Himalaya and for this reason it is considered among the most dangerous in the world. But not only that: it has only one landing track 3 thousand meters long, 02 or 20 depending on the direction. Thanks to the advance on the roadmap, the flight controller instructs the crew to enter a waiting circuit once the next navigation point was reached.
Katmandu’s control tower gives the green light to the landing on the 0-2 track, but the US Bangla-211 flight is not ready to land. The pilots head towards the track 2-0. Concerned by the situation, in flight controller gives consent to the landing on track 2-0, but neither the captain nor the first officer manage to identify the track. The plane starts to fly lower, unleashing the panic among passengers. The pilots again ask for authorization to land, but the plane is not aligned with the track.
Around 14.18, the US-Bangla 211 flight lands on the 0-2 track, running on the right and ending up in a football field. The aircraft breaks and, 440 meters from the track, explode. The health workers and firefighters immediately arrive on the spot, immediately operational to turn off the stake. The balance is dramatic: 49 victims, including pilots. Of the 22 survivors, 2 will die after a few days in the hospital.
The investigations
The tragedy of the US-Bangla 211 flight shakes the whole world and the investigations They start immediately: a special team is created with delegates from Nepal, Bangladesh and Canada, a country where the Bombardier Q400 was built. Following the impact and explosion, the plane is divided into two: the fuselage is charred, while the cabin is totally disintegrated. Fortunately, the black box and the on -board recorder are promptly saved by the flames and sent for the analysis of the case.
In the meantime, investigators question survivors to get some more information about the strange accident and secondly check the videos of the surveillance cameras at the airport. Any anomalies are immediately excluded to the engines, but not alleged control problems. Waiting to get answers from the black boxes, the team turns to flight controllerswho confirm that they have not received news from about pilots, faults or problems.
After a few days the files come from Ottawa from the black box and first of all the impututs given by the captain with the real movements of the plane are compared. The result is clear: the Q400 bombardier perfectly performed the pilot’s commands, so there was no control problem. But there is more: the data available highlights extreme commands on the bar towards the end of the flight, with a low -altitude maneuvers decidedly not very Orthodox. Why? Investigators try to understand more and make a sensational discovery: The aircraft was totally out of course.
The turning point
According to what emerged, in fact, despite the support of the control tower, the two pilots they did not follow the instructions. Digning to the bottom of the flight data, the crew had scheduled the waiting circuit 63 kilometers before the Waypoint Guras, the last before the airport, but the numbers confirm that the plane never completed the waiting circuit. Experts then decide to examine the cabin recorder and in this case there is no shortage of surprises, indeed.
In addition to not deleting the waiting circuit immediately, the captain had set to smoking a cigarette Inside the cabin, a violation of standard safety procedures. But that’s not all. Once you leave the circuit, the pilots set the automatic route, which directs the aircraft towards the point decided by the captain. But with this mode the plane is more sensitive to bad weather and a long series of manual interventions is required depending on the intensity and direction of the wind. Could this be the determining factor for the aerial tragedy?
Investigators turn on the spotlight on the weather bulletins relating to the day of the accident and discover that there was a wind very intense. But the pilots had not made corrections, thus ending up running out. Analyzing further the cabin recorder it emerges that the captain had lost situational awareness, with obvious signs of stress and agitation. In particular, it is injured for the criticisms of a former colleague, so much so that he lets himself go to tears.
And there is more. By deepening the dossier, the team discovers that the captain had resigned the day before the fatal vote. The picture is clear: the captain was emotionally unstableas evidenced by the dismissal by the Bangladesh Air Force for depression in 1993. Despite this, in 2003 he had been declared suitable for the fly, without any nod to the depression.
The reason is simple: for the psychological health modules a self -declaration was sufficient.
The consequences
Investigators recommend that exempted pilots for medical reasons are subjected to very in -depth physical and psychological tests before obtaining the renewal of the license.