Friday, May 21, 2010

Air India crash: No distress signal from pilot before crash, say sources

The pilot-in-command of the Air India Express aircraft from Dubai that overshot the runway and crashed while landing at the Mangalore airport was reportedly Z Glucia, a Serbian national. He was assisted by first officer Capt S S Ahluwalia.

Mangalore airport has a table-top runway which means that it is located on a hill top, which demands accuracy with no room for error while landing. According to sources, the pilot did not report any malfunction to the Airport Traffic Control (ATC), before landing.

According to reports, Z Glucia was an experienced pilot and familiar with Mangalore terrain and had been on this route several times before. It was only after landing that things went horribly wrong. Thereafter, the plane overshot the runway and went straight into the valley and caught fire.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that there may have been a tyre burst, which made it difficult for the pilot to bring the aircraft to a halt.

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