ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
New Delhi: The Mangalore air crash in May this year that killed 158 people happened due to pilot error, an enquiry into the circumstances leading to the accident has revealed.
The commander, Capt Zlatko Glusica, had ignored repeated warnings from his co-pilot Capt HS Ahluwalia as well as violated standard safety norms while landing that could be blamed for the air mishap.
Data from Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) has revealed that the Air India Express flight crash was a result one of the worst cases of "press-on-itis" — a term used to describe a situation in which a pilot's sound judgment is replaced with poor decision-making due to an urgency to complete a landing.
The flight, which was travelling to Mangalore from Dubai with mostly migrants working in the Gulf returning home, had overshot the runway, plunged into a gorge and burst into flames. Eight passengers had survived the crash.
An official enquiry into the incident has found that Capt Glusica was on the wrong flight path and did not correct course despite warnings from his co-pilot.
The commander attempted to take-off when only 800 feet of the 8,038-ft-long runway was left.
The last sentence uttered in the cockpit was of co-pilot Capt Ahluwalia's: "We don't have runway left”.
The aircraft was also found to have violated several laid-down limits — for criteria like airspeed and rate of descent — deemed critical for a safe approach.
The commander’s apparent wrong judgment led to India’s first major air crash since 2000 and its worst aviation disaster since 1996, when two jets had collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.
New Delhi: The Mangalore air crash in May this year that killed 158 people happened due to pilot error, an enquiry into the circumstances leading to the accident has revealed. The commander, Capt Zlatko Glusica, had ignored repeated warnings from his co-pilot Capt HS Ahluwalia as well as violated...
New Delhi: The Mangalore air crash in May this year that killed 158 people happened due to pilot error, an enquiry into the circumstances leading to the accident has revealed.
The commander, Capt Zlatko Glusica, had ignored repeated warnings from his co-pilot Capt HS Ahluwalia as well as violated standard safety norms while landing that could be blamed for the air mishap.
Data from Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) has revealed that the Air India Express flight crash was a result one of the worst cases of "press-on-itis" — a term used to describe a situation in which a pilot's sound judgment is replaced with poor decision-making due to an urgency to complete a landing.
The flight, which was travelling to Mangalore from Dubai with mostly migrants working in the Gulf returning home, had overshot the runway, plunged into a gorge and burst into flames. Eight passengers had survived the crash.
An official enquiry into the incident has found that Capt Glusica was on the wrong flight path and did not correct course despite warnings from his co-pilot.
The commander attempted to take-off when only 800 feet of the 8,038-ft-long runway was left.
The last sentence uttered in the cockpit was of co-pilot Capt Ahluwalia's: "We don't have runway left”.
The aircraft was also found to have violated several laid-down limits — for criteria like airspeed and rate of descent — deemed critical for a safe approach.
The commander’s apparent wrong judgment led to India’s first major air crash since 2000 and its worst aviation disaster since 1996, when two jets had collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.
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