Pilot Error Seen As Likely Cause of Mangalore Crash

A report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal says that Indian investigators have made a preliminary conclusion that the crash of the Air India Express flight from Dubai at the Mangalore airport on May 22 was caused by pilot error. This is not surprising from what has already been made public about the circumstances of the crash. The investigators say the pilots brought the plane in to land too far down the runway and then belated tried to take off again. But they ran out of tarmac before that happened, running their aircraft straight off a cliff into a ravine, killing 158 people on board (8 survived). The story contains a lot of interesting — and somewhat alarming — information on the number of international air safety standards that are currently not codified into regulations in India or airline practices. Luckily, the story says that the civil aviation authority is about to propose a host of rule and guidance changes to address these shortcomings.

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