Air India engineer's death: 'A black day in the history of Indian aviation'

After the freak accident at Mumbai airport claimed superintendent service engineer Ravi Subramanianrsquos life a maintenance manager from the airport has pointed out serious mistakes committed by the pilots in an email written to Air Indiarsquos senior officials in Delhi While the mail reveals a lsquolack of proper coordination between the two pilots and the ground staffrsquo cops investigating the case have not taken any action against the pilotsFamily and friends of the late Ravi Subramanian gathered at his Sanpada residence yesterday His wife Sujata was inconsolable while their son Krishna performed the last rites PicsSayyed Sameer AbediIn the mail titled lsquoA black day in the history of Indian aviationrsquo Pradeep Singh Rawat has pointed at the lsquogrey areas of the tragedyrsquo on bay 28L after speaking to Subramanianrsquos colleagues The incident allegedly took place while Subramanian was looking over the departure of Air Indiarsquos Airbus 319 aircraft He was wearing headphones and was present at the spot with a pushcart loader named ET Shinde The flight AI619 was being pushed back for departure to HyderabadAfter the pushback was completed Subramanian had instructed Shinde to carry out the process of detaching the tow bar While he was still standing on the right side of the aircraft with his back towards it the pilots received taxi clearance from ATCRavi SubramanianMistaking SOPsThe copilot allegedly told the pilot that the aircraft is clear after push back According to the Standard Operating Procedures SOPs see box of take off the pilot holds till he sees the engineer moving forward and to his left He starts the engines only after the ground controller shows the pilot a safety pin mdash removed from the undercarriage of the aircraft mdash and gives him a thumbsup signalldquoBut in this case it was negligence on the pilotrsquos part as he switched on the throttle at a higher speed without any signal from the engineer In this case the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer wasnrsquot at the position he should have been This needs to be investigatedrdquo said an airline officialThe copilot is responsible for checking both sides of the aircraft for obstructions and for informing the pilot to go ahead However in this case he informed the pilot that the aircraft is clear and there are no obstructions After this the pilot started the engines and Subramanian was sucked inside the engine Rawatrsquos report says that Shinde immediately lay down thus saving himselfldquoNo chocks breaks were placed after the push back no clearance signals taken from engineer before taxi out and lack of proper coordination between P1 pilot P2 copilot and ground staff in this case Subramanianrdquo Rawat said in his reportThe report indirectly points out that the pilots didnrsquot wait for Subramanianrsquos signal before readying for departure and didnrsquot apply brakes after the aircraft was detached from the tow vanExpert saysMohan Ranganathan aviation safety consultant said ldquoItrsquos obvious that someone hasnrsquot followed the SOP due to which this incident took place Itrsquos wrong to blame the pilots because only they know what happened inside the cockpit and the voice recorder will be able to throw light on itrdquoSpeaking to midday PSI LG Thatye an investigating officer in the case said ldquoWe have registered an Accidental Death Report and are investigating if there were any lapses in the SOPs We havenrsquot taken any action against the pilots as of nowrdquo said Thatye However another police officer who is aware of Rawatrsquos letter said ldquoOnly after the black box details are available the picture will get clearerrdquoVirendra Mishra DCP Zone VIII said ldquoOur investigations are going on and depending on the outcome we will take actionrdquo Subramanianrsquos son Krishna said ldquoI think the incident has taken place due to the mistake of the pilots and I request an inquiry in the matterrdquo The pilot of the flight Captain AG Sharma was questioned for nearly two hours by DGCA yesterday after which he will also be questioned by the Sahar Police today