Pilot of the Doha-Kochi Jet Airways flight with 142 passengers and eight crew on board that diverted to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday last was ‘very, very lucky to survive a blind approach’ for landing on a nearly empty tank.
“He would have given the Mayday call only when he knew his fuel remaining was dangerously low,” analyses Captain Mohan Ranganathan, veteran pilot, instructor and aviation safety expert.
It was a ‘very big error’ in choosing Thiruvananthapuram since it would have had the same kind of weather as in Cochin, Captain Ranganathan told
“To choose an airport which did not have a functional Instrument Landing System (ILS) was a massive error of judgement. He should have gone to Bengaluru or Coimbatore.”
Could the pilot have dangerously miscalculated the fuel availability? Or was he just attempting a brave act?
Captain Ranganathan said that from what he understood from sources in Jet Airways is that Doha-Cochin is a ‘tankering’ sector (carrying as much fuel as you can board for a second flight).
No brave act
So this airliner uplifts maximum fuel that the load permits. This means that the pilot had more than the fuel required for Doha-Cochin-Bengaluru plus 30 minutes holding at Bengaluru.
“It was not a question of brave act,” the Captain said. It was plain desperation as the pilot had miscalculated and used up all the extra fuel. He made three ‘go-arounds’ (aborted landing on final approach) in Cochin. This is against all safety norms.
A go-around in Cochin for the ILS takes a full 12-15 minutes for making the next final approach. For the Jet Airways Pilot to have made three, he would not have taken less than 30-40 minutes of flying at low levels, using up a lot of fuel.
Not calibrated
“He was not holding over Cochin as some news reports mention; the 30 minutes was due to the full ‘missed approach’ procedures for each approach.”
(In a missed approach procedure, the pilot may be given a track to follow, and altitude to climb to, followed by holding instructions at a nearby navigation fix.)
Should the fact that the ILS at runway 32 in Thiruvananthapuram was not calibrated for use have not led him to land at runway 14?
“Without ILS on 32 meant he was carrying out a VOR/DME approach (a non-precision approach generating two measurements needed to produce a navigational fix using a chart.)
“For runway 14, he would have had the sun in his eyes and it is difficult to spot the runway with the sun in your eyes.
He made three approaches and ‘go-arounds’ on runway 14 before, finally, making the desperate attempt on runway 32 and landing blindly. He had to land as he did not have fuel for another approach.”