Scary indeed.
**Oops! Co-pilot sends airliner into 7,000ft dive as he moves seat **
A panicky Indian co-pilot plunged an international passenger jet into a 7,000ft nosedive when he accidentally knocked the control column while adjusting his seat, an official report said yesterday. The 25-year-old co-pilot was so flustered by his clumsiness that he was unable to unlock the cockpit door to allow the captain, who had nipped out to the toilet, to return to his seat and resume the controls.
As the aircraft went into freefall screams erupted from the 113 passengers, the report by the Indian Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said. The names of the men were not released.
The Air India Express flight from Dubai to Poona (Pune), in western India, was at 37,000ft (11,300m) on May 26. No one was injured but the aircraft plunged 2,000ft before the captain was able to re-enter the cockpit. It fell a further 5,000ft while he struggled with his co-pilot.
The co-pilot told investigators that he had “got in a panic situation, couldn’t control the aircraft, neither open the cockpit door and answer the cabin call.”
When the 39-year-old captain managed to get back inside the cockpit he yelled “What are you doing?” and had to wrestle the controls from his colleague.
The report described how passengers were “scared and were shouting loudly” as loose objects were flung around. It suggested that the warning siren that went off when the aircraft began to nosedive caused the co-pilot to freeze. He said that he forgot to follow standard procedure.
The incident is the latest to raise serious questions over the safety standards of the airline. Four days earlier a flight for the same company, which is owned by the state carrier Air India, crashed in southern India, killing 158 people. A court of inquiry concluded that the pilot, Zlatko Glusica, 55, from Serbia, was dozing for much of the three-hour flight from Dubai to the city of Mangalore and was disorientated when the aircraft started to descend.
In June 2008 an Air India aircraft carrying about a hundred passengers flew past its destination with both pilots asleep. When they were woken by air traffic controllers they were 200 miles (320km) off course.
Last week three flight instructors in northern India were arrested for allegedly falsifying flying records for trainees. Three pilots, including one working for Air India, were stripped of their licences.
