courtesy: sifynews |
first, hearty condolences for all those who lost their lives... may their soul RIP.
i have been following this news from 8am.. if you ask me, what made me to write anything on this accident? only thing is, have watched almost all the episodes of "Air-Crash Investigation" in NGC. is that all enough to write report on this? i dont think so, but still, just wanted to pen down my views on the reason for this mis-hap.
analyzing the environment conditions when this plane approached the runway, of 8000ft long, runway cleared from ATC, pilots did not say any word on any problems in the aircraft,wind calm, no rain (cloudy but), visibility of 6km, enough grip in the runway (as per aviation minister's press statement), an well experienced pilots (having more than enough air-hours, and have flown to/out of this mangalore airport, airplane is just 2yrs old.
inspite of all these positives, the BOEING 737-800, did crash, with death toll of 159 (146 body recovered, as of now 5.40pm IST), out of 166 people (13 adults, 19 children, 4 infants, 6 crew)
what made me to stick to this news was, the difference in the numbers between the total persons on-board the plane and the death toll count. am so happy that there is alteast a difference in these numbers, considering it as a miraculous one. what did those 7ven people do differently, than the rest, to get out of this accident, still alive. for understanding this, we need to virtually re-create the seconds of disaster. let me try my view on it, with the timeline which i think would have happened resulting in this accident.
> ATC clears runway for flight 812 to land
> pilots of flight 812 starts their descending
> flight reaches the runway with little more altitude and speed than the expected one,
> flight touches little farther than the expected distance in the runway (2000ft from the start of the runway)
> noticing that pilot tries to abort the landing, increasing the thrust and accelerating, trying to takeoff
> this increases the rear tyres pressure, and leads to rear-right tyres failure first (as per the accounts of the survivor, they heard a loud noise as it touched-down, and its in right side, caz the survivor insisted that he saw a fire near the right wing)
> this then leads to the increasing pressure on the joint of the fuselage , which connects the front and rear of the plane (as the pilot tries to abort landing, trying to pull the plane up, but the rear tyre failure pulls the plane down, resulting in high mechanical tension in the joint)
> due to this high pressure, the plane breaks into two, though not so much apart from one another.
> this cancels the pilots try to abort the landing, and since the pilot tried to accelerate before, couldnt stop the plane inside the runway limit
> plane then goes ahead of the runway, skids off the remaining extended mud area, and then skids down the hill, creating a trail on the hill, and comes to rest around 90mts from the top of the hill.
> still, the plane is not completely in fire, which gives the time for those survivors to escape from the plane
> after few mins, when the fire reached the fuel, it exploded, engulfing the whole plane in fire, charring everyone still on that plane.
but, why couldnt the other people, couldnt get out, when few people managed? one thing we can get from the survivor statement was, all were thrown out, in all directions, when the flight spun out of control. so, when the plane was tumbling down thru the hill, most of them would have got hurt badly, because of which, during those critical time of escaping, they couldnt get up and go out. those who're able to stick to their seats or still managed to get up, got out thru any of the exit, which they could see, and escape this disaster. Even, one person managed to get out, walk for 30 mins to a nearby village.
this is just my view on this accident. we'll have to wait for the DGCA to come up with the official statement on what happened really, based on their investigation.
before ending this post, would like to convey million thanks to those volunteers from the nearby villages, who helped in the search and rescue operations, from the time they heard the loud blast, till this moment...
other links:
survivor story : http://sify.com/news/the-plane-broke-into-two-pieces-a-survivor-s-story-news-exclusives-kfwom4bcghf.html
total list of passengers: http://home.airindia.in/SBCMS/downloads/list_of_passengers.pdf
list of survivors : http://sify.com/news/list-of-mangalore-crash-survivors-news-national-kfwr4bjjeab.html
final tweet from a passenger at dubai airport : http://sify.com/news/final-tweet-from-air-india-passenger-news-national-kfwq5Mjehgi.html