[1]The preliminary investigation report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation that blamed the pilot of the Gulf Air for skidding off the runway at Cochin International Airport has drawn flak from aviation experts.
Experts think the lack of continuity in weather observation and the information given to the pilot more than one hour before, which didn’t show any picture of the rain, could be the actual reason for skidding of the aircraft.
“When it was raining heavily over the whole west coast, there should have been constant monitoring of weather at the Cochin airport too,” said an aviation expert and retired director of Indian Meteorological Department, who wanted anonymity.
“But since rain was not reflected in official records, the DGCA might have come to a conclusion that pilot was at error,” he added.
“It appears no weather observation was recorded soon after the incident took place. At least, it could have thrown some light on the actual reason for skidding of the aircraft,” said Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee member V. Krishnan.
“The pilot might have landed thinking the surface was normal,” he added.
Noting that it is far too early to jump in to conclusions, aviation expert captain A. Ranganathan said, aircraft have skidded off to the right side of the runway in two prior instances at the Cochin airport and so it is important to identify if there were any visual illusions instead of blindly blaming the pilot.
Mr Ranganathan said the conversation between the control tower and the pilot would be very crucial as it would give some information on whether the pilot had been warned about the wet surface.
“The instrument landing system is enough to land an aircraft and so the absence of radar couldn’t have mattered in this case,” he added.
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