Importance of crew training and passenger discipline in aviation safety
The aviation accident, on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, where a Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 aircraft collided with a Japanese Coast Guard Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport while landing.
Which all 379 passengers on the JAL plane escaped but with five fatalities on the smaller aircraft.
There was a notice to airmen issued for Haneda indicating that the stop bar.
A set of red lights that come on at taxi holding point for that runway, was not available.
The Coast Guard plane was cleared to the holding point, which was acknowledged by the pilot to Air Traffic Control (ATC).
The ATC tape transcript also shows the JAL flight being cleared to land, which was acknowledged by the pilots.
The investigation report will indicate what made the Coast Guard pilot enter the runway.
The investigation report will identify these and we can expect the preliminary report in a fortnight, unlike accident reports in India which take months and years.
Aircraft manufacturers are required to demonstrate that an aircraft, in maximum density configuration, can be completely evacuated within 90 seconds using only half the total number of emergency exits.
The world witnessed the highest quality of discipline and crew training, which saved 379 people in the fiery accident.
It was an amazing display of orderly evacuation from the burning wreckage that the JAL cabin crew executed.
All passengers followed the safety instructions and left the aircraft without carrying their hand bags or crowding around after coming down the
aircraft evacuation slides.
Only three exits were available for evacuation.
The cabin public address system was not working and the crew used megaphone and voice announcements for the evacuation.
On August 2, 2005, Air France flight, AF 358, from Paris, France, to Toronto overshot the runway while landing in heavy rain and caught fire.
All 309 passengers were evacuated safely, though 11 received injuries.
Images of the evacuation showed several passengers leaving the burning aircraft with their hand luggage.
Similar action by passengers on an Emirates flight (EK 521) from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai, on August 3, 2016, that crashed while landing.
A complete lack of discipline on the part of passengers who were grabbing their hand luggage, thus delaying the evacuation.
The aviation world should learn a lot from the absolutely high professional standards in JAL’s training of its crew.
Air passengers worldwide should also realise that pre-flight emergency procedure instructions should be followed seriously.
Concerns about safety practices in Indian aviation
Air India has had a long history of covering up serious incidents and accidents with the blessings of the DGCA.
The hard landing accident at Dubai should serve as a wake-up call for the airline.
The airline has just inducted a new aircraft, the Airbus A350, and the criterion for the crew selected to fly it should be based on very high standards and not on seniority.
While the first lot of captains are Airbus experienced.
The second lot being sent for conversion are from the Boeing fleet.
Both the DGCA and Air India should insist on a hard copy of the simulator proficiency check report/certification of the pilots training on this aircraft.
Merely stating that safety is paramount when so many incidents are being swept under the carpet will not improve the reputation of the airline.
India can claim to The Air India management needs to do some soul searching when it comes to operations, training and safety.
India and its airlines have much to learn from the Japan Airlines incident.
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