日志
Sleepy' pilot caused Air India plane crash 飞行员打瞌睡
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Air India plane crash: 'Sleepy' pilot blamed
17 November 2010
A dozing pilot was to blame for a plane crash in May in southern India which killed 158 people, an official investigation has reportedly found.
According to details of the report leaked to media, the Air India Express plane approached Mangalore at the wrong height and angle.
The Serbian pilot, Zlatko Glusica, was "disorientated" having been asleep for much of the three-hour flight.
The airline said it would not comment until the report's official release.
An Air India spokesperson, who did not want to be named, said: "The media has reported only on parts of the report.
"When we receive the full report, we will respond to the government of India."
According to the Hindustan Times, data recorders captured the sound of snoring.
Glusica is said to have been affected by "sleep inertia" after his nap.
Co-pilot H S Ahluwalia was reportedly heard making repeated warnings to the Serb to abort landing and try again.
'No runway left'
Seconds before the plane erupted into a fireball, voice recordings picked up the co-pilot saying: "We don't have runway left."
The Boeing 737 overshot, plunged into a steep gorge and burst into flames. Only eight people survived.
Most of the passengers on the low-cost flight from Dubai to Mangalore were Indian migrant workers returning from the Gulf.
India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters his ministry had received the report on Tuesday and the government would study it before taking any action.
A government official who did not want to be named told the Associated Press news agency that Indian media reports about the findings were accurate.
But the investigation would only be made public once it had been presented to parliament.
Mr Glusica was said to have had 10,000 hours of flying time, including experience of Mangalore's airport.
The civil aviation minister noted at the time that Mangalore had a short landing strip which meant that there was limited space to accommodate planes that overshot.
The airliner missed its landing threshold by about 2,000ft (600m).
In June 2008, Air India denied reports that two of its pilots had been caught napping on the job.
A flight from Dubai allegedly passed its destination of Mumbai because both pilots were fast asleep in the cockpit.
Mumbai air traffic controllers had to use a special buzzer to rouse the pair, but by then the plane was halfway to Goa, according to the Times of India newspaper.
Once awakened, the pilots turned the aircraft around and made a safe landing.
India's air safety record has been good in the past decade, despite a rapid increase in the number of private airlines and air travel in the country.
The tragedy was the country's first major air crash since one in the eastern city of Patna killed at least 50 people in July 2000.
Mangalore's disaster was the deadliest since a mid-air collision in November 1996 between a Saudi airliner and a Kazakh cargo plane near Delhi, in which 349 people died.
Your comments
It is shocking that the pilot was in such a state while flying the plane. This raises many questions: Why was he allowed to fly the plane if he was so fatigued? Why did the co-pilot not take charge when he saw the pilot in this state, and inform the ATC (air traffic control) accordingly? Surely the airline is to blame for this, as they are using pilots who are exhausted and haven't trained the co-pilots well enough to handle such situations!Swaminathan, Bangalore, India
I'm amazed that the co-pilot allowed the drowsy pilot to land the plane. He should have taken control and landed the plane. More secure procedures need to be followed by the pilots for the safety of the passengers. Vipul, Srinagar, India
Simply shocking. The passengers trust that the air crew are competent enough to pilot the plane safely and that they are in a fit condition to do their job. Satya Jyothi, Bangalore, India
Once again we Indians only want to blame somebody for what's happened. The investigators of the accident should answer why it happened in addition to what happened. Pilot nodded off, but the question remains why did he fall asleep. If the purpose of the investigation is to find the actual cause of the accident and to avoid it in the future, we have to answer these questions rather than blaming the pilot for what happened.Sasi, Mumbai, India
At least the report and the inquiry about the ill-fated Air India Express flight is before us. The tragic end of the aircraft by human error reveals that man can be beaten if the machine created by man is not operated properly. The sleepy pilot is said to be responsible for it. But is this the end? Surely not. We still need to think seriously so that such tragic incidents are avoided and innocent people don't suffer such trauma. Muhd Shadab Khan, Basti, India
We Indians usually have very short memories. Debates and discussions crop up only for a few days after the accident. I remember during the days after this unfortunate accident, a lot of talk was directed towards upgrading airport infrastructure at Mangalore and across the country in general. However, we are yet to see the efforts towards such upgrades. It takes a tragedy to open our eyes and it takes another tragedy to shut our eyes for the earlier one. Ashish Pradhan, Mumbai, India
This problem of sleepy pilots is endemic throughout the airline industry, as airlines try to squeeze more and more work out of their workforce. It is nothing short of criminal that the transport sector in Europe is excluded from the EU working time directives, and we are regularly on a 55 hour week. With start and finish times so early and late, a common phrase I hear at work on the flight deck is how tired the other guy is! And all for the cause of a £5 ticket (plus tax) to somewhere. It may be cheap to buy - but is it good value? What is your life worth? Tired Pilot, UK
Why is the pilot getting all the blame? What did the co-pilot do? He was obviously aware of the situation - he was screaming about it. He must have been sitting half a metre from a snoring pilot and didn't do anything about it. Didn't take command. How could he avoid noticing that they were landing? You have to report to the ATC far ahead - there's no way around it. The co-pilot is capable of landing, and still he did nothing. Was he asleep too? Was the ATC asleep? Mangalore's short runway has nothing to do with it. JS, Stockholm, Sweden
Sleep deprivation caused by social media addiction led to fighter plane crash in 2013: Air Force chief
Chief of the Air Staff Marshal BS Dhanoa said pilots are spending too much time on social media websites at night. This internet addiction is behind their poor sleep quality, which in turn is affecting their flight performance.
In a shocking revelation, chief of the Indian Air Force Air Marshal BS Dhanoa said sleep deprivation caused by spending hours on social media was the reason behind the pilot losing control over his MiG-21 Bison fighter plane leading it to crash in 2013 in Uttarlai, Rajasthan. The pilot died in the accident.
Speaking at the 57th Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine conference organised in Bengaluru on Friday, Dhanoa said a system needs to be put into place which can identify ifpilots had enough sleep before they go out on sorties. He said pilots are spending too much time on social media sites at night and this is leading to severe sleep deprivation.
"In summers with temperatures soaring beyond 40° Celsius flying sorties are discouraged so the flight briefings take place early in the morning. Most flight briefings are as early as 6 am sometimes and it has come to notice that pilots haven't had enough sleep," he said.
The air chief urged the Institute of Aerospace Medicine to address the issue by creating a system which can identify whether pilots had enough sleep before flying out on a sortie.
"In times before internet and social media, the barman would know if a pilot had one drink too many and if he didn't others would know and the pilot would be grounded for the day and nowadays we even have breath analysers. We also need a system which can identify pilots who didn't have enough sleep," Dhanoa said.
印军飞机经常坠毁：飞行员喜欢在飞机上打瞌睡
2018-09-17 来源：印度《经济时报》
在印度空军战斗机接连坠毁之后，来自印度国内民众、政府和媒体的质疑显然将印度空军再度推上了风口浪尖。而在近日，印度空军总参谋长公开表示：事故可能和飞行员的睡眠状况相关。通过研究近期一起米格-21战斗机在着陆时的坠毁事故，印度空军医学研究所认为该机的飞行员在降落过程中打瞌睡，继而导致了事故的发生。
对此，印度空军总参谋长向印度空军医学研究所下达命令，要求后者找到飞行员睡眠问题的解决方案。乍一看来，印度空军的确像是找到了事故频发的原因和理由，甚至在已有飞行员起诉空军地勤保养不力的现在，印度空军的这一番表态大有“责任不在飞机，所以责任不在空军”的意思。
实际上，“问题在飞行员打瞌睡”听上去责任似乎的确不在印度空军，但其背后透露出的信息，却更折射出印度空军的组织涣散，战斗力低下、管理混乱等一系列现状。
首先，飞行过程中打瞌睡看似不可思议，但这种情况并非是印度人的专利。往近了说，巴西和英国在新千年后对民航机飞行员进行的调查都显示，飞行员在飞行当中（无论有无轮班）打瞌睡以缓解疲劳是普遍情况。此外，长程飞行的战略轰炸机或客货机还另外配有休息用的床铺，以及轮休用的飞行员。
往远了说，为飞行员配发精神类药剂以提振其精神的行为，在第二次世界大战当中还为美日英法德各国所纷纷采用。上述事实起码能证明一点：高集中度的飞行活动必定会快速消耗飞行员的精力，出现疲劳情况也是理所当然的结果。
当然，在单座的战斗机上，更换飞行员来避免疲劳飞行情况出现，继而杜绝“打瞌睡”就明显不可行了。好在单座战斗机执行任务的时间普遍都不长，其内油至多只能支撑3个小时，平时休息够了，训练时出问题的概率不能说没有，至少“打瞌睡”的可能性不大。
但若印度空军的“打瞌睡”不是个例，而是需要空军总参谋长亲自下令解决的“普遍情况”，那么印度空军的日常活动一定是有问题的。
当然，从有限的消息当中，笔者难以推测印度空军的日常活动与事务到底是哪里出问题----飞行员的睡眠不足，既有可能是坊间说的“管不住手机”，也很有可能是训练和学习安排不科学，还有可能是飞行员住处的条件过差，甚至还有可能是印度为战斗机飞行员的饮食安排不妥当……而这些因素可能有一种在作祟，也可能有很多种同时产生复合作用。
有一句老话说得好：现代战争首先打的是后勤。确切点说，若在后勤上不能“达标”，则现代军队根本不具备上战场的资格：飞行员带着睡意上飞机，地勤带着睡意修飞机，装弹药，那这仗压根没法打。
而印度空军此时面对的，就正是这样的问题。不同于兵器落后、数量短缺这种我们常见的“落后”，飞行员打瞌睡背后的恶劣影响要常人所想更加深远，也更加能揭露出印度空军这只“南亚纸老虎”真正的实力到底如何。
