The crash of Boeing 737 in Mangalore

In a disaster, a Boeing 737-8HG crashed, one of the new generation Boeing-737, registration number VT-AXV and serial number 36333, building number - 2481 ^[6] . The aircraft made its first flight on December 20, 2007 at the tests of the Boeing company under the number N1787B and was delivered to the airline on January 18, 2008 ^{[7] [8]} . The commander of the aircraft was Zlatko Glushitsa, co-pilot S. Akhluvaliya, also the crew included 4 flight attendants ^{[9] [10]} . Glushitsa (a former employee of Jat Airways ) had the citizenship of Serbia and Great Britain, more than 10,000 hours of flight, of which 7,500 hours as a commander, and Ahluvalia (a former employee of Jat Airways , who came to Air India in April 2009 ) died in a plane crash ^{[10] [11] [12]} . Both pilots lived in Mangalore ^[13] .

On May 22, a flight from Mangalore to Dubai was operated by a Boeing 737 -8HG. The flight went without incident and at 23:44 local time the plane landed at Dubai Airport . After refueling and maintenance, the aircraft had to perform a return flight to Mangalore. 160 passengers and 6 crew members boarded. Another 9 people who booked seats on the plane, for unknown reasons, did not fly on flight 812. After loading, the airliner made a flight to its destination and after a while gained the necessary height . All negotiations with the air traffic services were conducted by the second pilot, since the captain slept during almost the entire flight.

It should be noted that the airport in Mangalore is located on an elevated area and is among the ten most dangerous airports in India . According to the decision of the , only the captain of the aircraft should take off and approach at Mangalore Airport. At the time of the crash, Air India Express 812 flight captain Zlatko Glushitsa made 16 takeoffs and landings at Mangalore Airport ^[14] .

At 209 km from Mangalore airport, the second pilot contacted the checkpoint manager and asked for permission to reduce to 2.1 km, but was refused, because at that time there was another plane at this level. At 5:46, the dispatcher allowed a decrease to a height of 2.1 km. At 5:47, the crew began to decline. The plane was 124 km away. The weather conditions for landing were favorable: visibility was more than 6 kilometers, the wind was moderate, no precipitation was observed. During the descent, the control card was read out by the captain only partially and much later than required by the established standards of approach. At 5:50, being 80.5 km from the airport, the plane crossed FL295 (9000 m). Despite following the dispatcher’s instructions and decreasing, the plane landed above the normal glide path .

The captain decided to accelerate the decline when he realized that the airliner is much higher than necessary. To this end, he released the landing gear and set the flaps at 40 degrees, but the aircraft continued to land almost twice above the glide path ^[15] .

The crew received permission to land from the ATC service and began to perform a standard instrument approach (ILS) to lane 24. Weather conditions were normal; light rain began after the crash of the airliner. The last seconds of the recording of negotiations between the crew and the dispatcher were not recorded in the voice of the co- pilot of anxiety or panic .

The co-pilot was concerned that the plane was too high and he suggested the captain go to the second circle, but he continued to decline, being above a normal trajectory. The co-pilot repeated that it was necessary to go to the second round, to which the captain exclaimed: “Oh my God!”, Disabled the autopilot and increased the speed of descent to 20 meters per second. This led to the operation of automatic alarms “Sink rate” and “Pull up”, which recommended to gain altitude and warned of a high risk of collision with the ground. As a result, the plane landed in the middle of strip 24 No. 2448 meters long, rolled out of it, rushed a few tens of meters, collided with obstacles and fell into a ravine surrounding the Mangalore airfield. The airliner broke into two parts, kerosene began to flow out of damaged fuel tanks; at the crash site, a severe fire began. In the first seconds after the accident, several passengers managed to get out of the destroyed plane through the broken portholes . Surviving passengers went for help to local residents who arrived at the scene of the disaster before the rescue services. Later 15 fire engines, 20 ambulances and about 100 rescue personnel arrived. 8 victims were hospitalized, one passenger died from her injuries on the way to the hospital ^[15] .

150 employees of the Indian organization Central Industrial Security Force joined the search and rescue operation. On the first day, the bodies of 87 dead were removed from the wreckage and their remains were sent for identification by relatives. 158 people died in the crash, most of whom died as a result of a severe fire . Surviving 7 passengers received injuries of varying severity.

The parametric recorder was found on May 23, and the voice recorder was found on May 25. According to the official DGA report in India and the organization, the main cause of the disaster was the mistake of Captain Glushitsa, who, despite the comments of the co-pilot and warnings of the EGPWS system, continued his approach and attempted to leave for the second round after landing. The runway touched 600 meters from the start of the runway and the airliner did not have enough remaining distance (1848 meters) for normal braking. A study of the wreckage of the liner showed that at the time of the disaster the ores were in the “full throttle” position. Already on the run of the aircraft, the captain suddenly made an attempt to interrupt the approach and put the engine control levers into takeoff mode, which only aggravated the situation. The transcript of the flight recorder showed that the co-pilot noticed the captain's mistake and recommended that he go to the second circle when the plane was 4 km from the airport. The captain’s inappropriate behavior could be caused by the fact that he slept during the 90 minutes of the flight and, after waking up, probably could not quickly concentrate and understand the unusual situation.

The catastrophe was also affected by additional factors:

• The absence of an MSSR control radar at Mangalore Airport, which is why air traffic services made a mistake and allowed the crew to descend a little later than necessary. In this regard, the plane followed the landing much higher than the normal glide path .
• Lack of active actions of the co-pilot, who discovered the captain’s mistake in time, but didn’t take active measures to prevent the disaster.
• The location of the airfield in an elevated area surrounded by a ravine , which to some extent complicated the approach ^[15] .

On July 27, 2010, a memorial was erected near the crash site with the names of 158 people killed in the accident, but on October 5, 2010 the monument was destroyed by vandals ^[19] .

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