As the hunt for the black box and cockpit voice recorder gathered pace, “hydraulic failure” were the two words that were heard at Air Traffic Control in Mangalore, seconds after the ill-fated flight shot off the 2,900 metre (2.9km or 9,000 feet) runway shortly after 6 am on Saturday.
While several theories are doing the rounds on what caused the crash, officials at Mangalore ATC believe that technical failure undid the flight, and that it was not due to pilot error. A hydraulic failure would have caused the Boeing 737-800’s wheels to lock up and the aircraft would have slid along as if ‘skating on ice’, as aviation experts say. Aviation experts said a hydraulic failure is the worst thing that can happen to an aircraft taking off from or landing on a short runway. “When brakes are applied on landing, there is possibility of the tires getting locked and the aircraft skidding away from the runway,” said an aviation expert and a former Indian Air Force official. Weather was not a factor said IMD Bengaluru director B. Puttanna, who said “When the crash took place, the weather condition were suitable for landing. It was minutes after the crash that it started raining around the airport.”
Several factors such as a late touchdown, a tyre burst or a snag in the brake system could be the probable cause for the crash in Mangalore, said aviation experts and veteran pilots.
“It appears that the aircraft was okay till it landed as the pilot has not reported any glitch to the ATC. The question of poor visibility is also ruled out at it was excellent (at six km) this morning. The issue is also not about the place because the new runway was opened in 2006 and several thousand aircraft have landed and taken off. So, the question is at what point (on runway) the aircraft touched down, its speed, and why it left the runway. It may be the brakes failed or the fact that they were applied harshly and thus caused a tyre burst,” former chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal (retired) Fali Homi Major told this newspaper.
Two veteran pilots who have flown aircraft to Mangalore said a late touchdown coupled with a wet runway could have led to a loss of control of the aircraft. “There’s no problem landing on table top runway as its length is according to international standards and matches those in Pune, Indore and other cities,” they said. One aviation expert pointed at the possibility of “aquaplaning” (thin film of water on runway after rain which prevents traction of the aircraft’s wheels) as the cause for the disaster. “The runway was commissioned in 2006 and has remained operational since then. Capt. Glusica, the commander of the plane, had flown from Mangalore in November 2009,” an official said.