Indian Airlines Flight 605

Take-off and approach

Flight 605 took off from Bombay Airport at 11:58 local time after an hour delay. Before the flight, the aircraft had been used for another flight on the day of the accident, operating as Flight 669 and Flight 670, flying from Bombay to Goa and then back to Bombay. The aircraft was an Airbus A320-231 registered in India as VT-EPN, carrying 139 passengers and 7 crew members, including 4 infants. The aircraft assigned route was on route W17 from Bombay to Belgaum via Karad and W56 from Belgaum to Bangalore. The take-off phase and en route phase were uneventful.

At 12:53 local time, Flight 605 radar plot appeared on Bangalore's radar. Flight 605 was asked by Bangalore Radar to turn right and make a visual approach to Runway 09. The autopilot was disconnected by the crew and the crew later changed to Bangalore Tower after being transferred by Bangalore Radar.

Crash

While Flight 605 was attempting to land, the landing gear touched the ground of Karnataka Golf Club, approximately 2.800 ft from the airport. At this point, most people on the aircraft, including some crew members, thought that the aircraft had touched down on the runway as it was similar to its normal landing. Flight 605 then went up again, but later impacted the ground for the second time. The impact caused several people to be thrown from their seats and hit the aircraft's floor, as several seat belts snapped during the impact. Flight 605 later struck a 12-ft embankment. Both engines and the landing gear of the aircraft detached from the wings and the fuselage. The aircraft then flew over a road and crashed onto a grassy, rocky area near the airport.

Search and rescue

A post-impact fire occurred, and several survivors started to escape from the burning wreckage. Several people managed to get out from the plane due to an opening on the aircraft's fuselage. The surviving cabin crew opened the emergency door on the airplane and began to evacuate the survivors. At least 92 people, consisting of 88 passengers and 4 crews, were killed in the crash, while 54 other survived, all with injuries. 2 people succumbed to their injuries. The crash killed a cow during its final impact.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire brigade didn't arrive on the crash site. There is no RT communication facility between the tower and fire fighting vehicles. A portable radio transmitter is available for communication between tower and aerodrome fire station but was not serviceable on the day of the accident.

Passengers and crews

Flight 605 was carrying 139 passengers and 7 crew members, consisted of 2 cockpit crew and 5 cabin crew members. There were 4 infants aboard the flight.

The pilot who controlled the flight was 46 year old Captain C.A Fernandez, an Indian national. He joined Indian Airlines in 1977 as a pilot and was later promoted to be a co-pilot and later Captain of a Hawker Siddeley HS 748. In 1983 he obtained a Boeing 737 co-pilot rating and a Captain rating later on 1984. He later became a co-pilot of an Airbus A320 on 1989. He had a total flying experience of 9.307 hours, in which 5.175 hours of them were on the Airbus A320.

According to the report, Captain Fernandez was under supervision, as he was undergoing the first of 10 route checks required for qualification to Captain. During the flight, he was seated on the left seat.

The pilot who supervised Captain Fernandez was 44 year old Captain S.S Gopujkar. Captain Gopujkar was also an Indian national. He joined Indian Airlines on 1969 and was employed as a co-pilot on a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 during a period from 1971 - 1981 and later flew the plane as a Captain. In 1981 he obtained a Boeing 737 co-pilot rating and later a pilot in command rating on 1983. In 1989 he was promoted as a co-pilot on an Airbus A320. Captain Gopujkar had a total flying experience of 10.340 hours in which 7.176 hours of them were on the Airbus A320. During the flight he was carrying out the duties of both the co-pilot and the check pilot.

Before Flight 605, Captain Gopujkar was involved in a taxiing incident in Cochin, although he was not blamed for the incident. During Flight 605, he was seated on the right seat.

Casualties

Officials stated that 92 people were killed in the crash, including Captain Gopujkar and Captain Fernandez. According to official report, among the 54 injured people, at least 20 of them suffered head injuries. 32 people suffered lower limbs injuries, while 7 people sustained thoracic injuries. Details in the report revealed that most of the dead also suffered major trauma and shock during the crash. At least 81 victims who had been identified by the investigative committee were revealed to have suffered shocks and burn injuries.

The report then stated that several passengers may have been too injured to move, and became physically unable to escape from the burning wreckage. They may have survived the impact, however due to the injuries they suffered during the crash, they couldn't escape. The report stated that most people seated near the emergency exits and slides survived the crash.

As most survivors and victims of the crash suffered head and leg injuries, the investigative team stated that those injuries might have occurred to the passengers (and some of the crews) on board due to inadequate leg room. In addition, during the crash, several seats were thrusted forward, causing several passengers' head to slam onto the back of the seat in front of them.

Investigation

The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation ordered a full scale investigation into the crash. The Indian AAIB and the Canadian TSB were involved in the investigation. On 19 February, investigators visited the crash site and inspected the wreckage of the aircraft. They noted that the front part of the aircraft was destroyed during its impact with the embankment. Subsequent fire led to the total destruction of the aircraft.

Initial inspection

Investigators then inspected the flight controls of Flight 605, which were the rudder, the ailerons, the trimmable horizontal stabilizer, the flaps and slats, and several other flight controls. However, they didn't find any abnormalities on these controls. Control failure was ruled out from the cause of the crash. According to investigators, they also ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash, as there were no sign of on board explosion during the approach and there were no evidence of explosives on board.

FDR and CVR analysis

After the discovery of the FDR and the CVR, investigators decoded and analyse its contents.

Investigators made an analysis based on both flight recorders as follow: Flight 605 was approaching Bangalore Airport in 'open descent' mode. In this mode, the aircraft engines are at idle throttle. People would notice this since the engines seem to turn silent, and the plane appears to be sinking bit by bit.

The crew of Flight 605 then sighted the runway of Bangalore Airport, and disengaged the autopilot. They later made contact with Bangalore Tower. At 01:40 pm local time, the aircraft display indicated that the plane’s altitude was just under 5000 ft and its approach path was 600 ft higher than the normal glide path.

Captain Fernandez noticed this, and requested for a go-around. He would climb to 6000 ft, do another chakkar (circle) and come back better aligned to the normal glide path. The check pilot, Captain Gopujkar then responded to his request: “Go round you want? Or you want vertical speed?” Captain Fernandez chose to proceed with the vertical speed option. If the pilots would have proceeded with the go-around, the emergency that was to follow could have been averted.

Since the plane was a little higher than the normal glide path, Captain Fernandez asked for a higher descent rate of 1000 ft / min, instead of the normal rate of 700 ft / min. This faster descent increased the aircraft speed to 275 km / hr — higher than the recommended speed of 240 km / hr — but it helped the aircraft regain the normal glide path. The aircraft was also now in the vertical speed mode — the correct mode for landing.

Captain Gopujkar then check the landing checklist. After completed the checklist he later asked the cabin crew to sit at their stations. Realizing that the aircraft has regained its normal glide path, Captain Gopujkar reported at 01:42 that he had now selected a “700 ft rate of descent”. However, instead of choosing the vertical speed knob, he accidentally chose the altitude knob. So, instead of inputting an order for a 700 ft rate of descent to the Airbus A320, he made an order to put the aircraft on an altitude of 700 ft.

These knobs, the vertical speed knob and the altitude knob, are located next to each other and have similar design. This might have led to the confusion.

Because of Captain Gopujkar's action, the aircraft went back to the 'open descent' mode, causing the throttle to be in idle position. The absence of engine power on the aircraft led to the decrease of the aircraft's speed. The plane was falling fast. Despite of the impending disaster, the crew of Flight 605 seem to not aware of it.

The plane's radio altimeter then sounded: "400 ft". This probably alerted Captain Gopujkar in some way because he suddenly observed: “You are descending on idle open descend ha, all this time!”. And as the altimeter called out “300 ft”, Captain Gopujkar asked: “You want flight directors off now?”. Captain Fernandez confirmed that his flight director had been put off, Captain Gopujkar's however, hadn't. If both the flight directors had been put off at that point, the plane would have gone to the speed mode, sensing that speed was dropping, and enough engine power could have been generated for a possible recovery even at that late stage.

The plane continued to hurtle downwards. When the plane was only 135 ft from the ground, Captain Fernandez suddenly realized the gravity of the situation and exclaimed: “Hey, we’re going down!”. Captain Gopujkar, himself stunned now, could only respond with “Oh, shit!” Those were his last recorded words. Captain Fernandez then ordered an immediate TOGA (Take-off Go-around). However, this action was too late. The aircraft did lift again from the ground, however it failed to clear a 12-ft embankment. Investigators stated that if this action had been taken 2 seconds earlier, the disaster could have been averted.

Controversy

India's investigative team concluded that pilot error was the cause of the accident, which was supported by Airbus Industries. However, the India Commercial Pilot Association disputed the report. Claiming that design flaw on the Airbus A320 was the cause of the crash. They claimed that they have the evidence to prove that the cause of the crash was due to design flaw rather than a pilot error.

The India Commercial Pilot Association stated that the senior Captain of the flight, Captain Gopujkar, wouldn't made the series of mistakes and stated that there was no proof that he made the faulty setting since the flight data recorder didn't record such mistake. The association also believes that the engines went into idle power because of a major systems defect. Even when Gopujkar tried to shut his director off, it didn't respond. And that the time lag of 0.5 seconds for the auto-thrust controls to act proved to be disastrous.

At the time, the Airbus A320 is relatively new, having just been launched in 1988. Most pilots stated that the system of the aircraft was different than any other aircraft. The essential difference was that the A320 used the fly-by-wire (FBW) technology. In a conventional aircraft the pilot was in direct contact with the actuator; so if the pilot opened the throttle more, the actuator immediately gave the pilot more power. But in the A320 the pilot’s command was first directed to an on-board computer — and the actuator responded only when the computer determined that it is okay to do so.

Before the crash of Flight 605, the Airbus A320 had been involved in another crash, which is Air France Flight 296. Official investigation determined that the cause of the crash was pilot error. However, the pilot blamed the plane's fly-by-wire system for the crash. This claim causing a major controversy on the Airbus A320.