Aai Blames Cockpit Crew For Mid-Air Collision

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has blamed the cockpit crew of Kazhak IL-76 of Kazhak Airlines for its collision with a Saudi Airways Boeing over Charki-Dadri near Delhi on November 12, 1996, which killed 349 people.

AAI counsel NAK Sarma told a commission of inquiry headed by Justice R C Lahoti that the Delhi air traffic control could not be blamed for the mishap as the operating crew did not perform its duties with expected alertness.

Both the aircraft had confirmed having arrived at their assigned levels of flight level 150 (flight level of 15,000 feet for Kazhak aircraft) and flight level 140 (flight level of 14,000 feet for Saudi Airways), which they had been directed to maintain, the counsel said.

 

The primary and sole reason for the Kazhakstan aircraft to descend below flight level 150 was the absence of flight discipline in the cockpit together with the language problem of their own making, Sarma said.

He submitted that the pilots who handled the controls did not know what their radio operator said or heard in English and that the operator was not aware of what the pilots were doing.

He also said that there was no coordination on the part of Kazakh cockpit crew as they did not assist in getting the aircraft out of danger.