Air India crash fallout: Videos should be installed in cockpits, says IATA chief
LONDON: Pilots should be filmed in the cockpit so that accidents can be investigated properly, International Air Transport Association (IATA) director-general Willie Walsh has said.
'I can see there is a strong argument now for the inclusion of video in the cockpit to assist in accident investigations,' Walsh said in his first remarks since the release of the preliminary investigation report on the June 12 Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash.
'We believe that any major incident or accident that takes place needs to be investigated fully and properly and reported so that everyone can benefit. Based on what little we know now, it is quite possible that a video recording in addition to the voice recording, would significantly assist the investigators conducting [the Air India] investigation,' Walsh, former chief executive of British Airways, said in Singapore on Wednesday.
'Videos are becoming important now as there have been so many crashes over the past few years,' a retired Boeing pilot captain who flew 737s internationally told TOI. 'A video recording would answer all the questions about the Air India crash… People need answers.'
Pilots' unions are worried about privacy breaches and the videos being misused. President of the largest airline pilot union in the world, the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA), Capt Jason Ambrosi, told TOI: 'ALPA has long recommended that any additional resources should be focused on enhancing current safety systems to record more data of a higher quality and improve pilot situational awareness by deploying readily available technology, like ADS-B in equipage, to prevent accidents, as opposed to video images, which are subject to misinterpretation and may lead investigators away from accurate conclusions.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
[속보]'한 달만에 5cm 성장!?' 2개월치 무료증정 압도적 키성장 1위!
아이클타임
더 알아보기
Undo
Flight deck image recorders will not improve safety and could impede it by diverting limited resources that could be used for more valuable safety enhancements. ALPA remains equally concerned as to how such proposed video recordings may be misused.'
In 2000, US National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall had urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require all commercial US airliners to be equipped with cockpit video recorders.
An FAA spokesperson told TOI, 'The FAA formed an Aviation Rulemaking Committee in Sept 2023 to provide suggestions for addressing these recommendations. The FAA expects to receive the committee's report later this year and will carefully evaluate it.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
AI 171 fuel switch-off mystery: All expert theories we have heard so far
There are a lot of theories offering explanations on how the fuel control switch of Air India's Ahmedabad-London 171 flight transitioned to CUT OFF. These theories are all that victims' families and the public have until investigators publish their final report, which may take a year or what do these theories say and which one carries the most weight? To find out, we scoured through dozens of reports published in India Today and several other credible media houses based in the US and the UK. advertisementFormer pilots, engineers, air safety professionals and investigators speaking to the media have offered three potential scenarios to explain the fuel control switching turning off at 1:38:42 pm on June 12. These are:Intentional or erroneous fuel cut off by a pilot,Accidental movement of signal or chip that could have sent wrong messages to the engine's brain ie Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC), a digital electronic system managing all aspects of engine performance. The first explanation – that the switches were moved by a human hand – has been backed by the majority of experts. A report published by The Wall Street Journal, based on statements of people familiar with the US' official assessment, identified senior pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal as someone who is likely to have turned off the switch. Former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety inspector David Saucie told CNN that the switches couldn't be moved only by a person. Many experts said the switches come with a spring-based lock feature and need to be pulled up before moving to RUN or CUT OFF second group of aviation professionals suggest a signal or a chip malfunction. 'When the fuel switch is moved, there are various micro switches that are made contact with. These micro-switches send signals to various aircraft systems, like FADEC or the engine's brain, different spar valves and fuel control valves,' Sharath Panicker, the former Air Force officer who also flew the 787s at Air India, told India Today, suggesting that possible signal malfunction. However, another set of experts cite an earlier FAA circular that said fuel control panels in some Boeing 787 planes came with the lock feature disengaged, suggesting that such a switch, had it been installed in the AI-171, could move automatically or accidentally due to aircraft vibration, contact or quadrant flex. In its preliminary report published last Friday, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the fuel control switches were moved to CUT OFF barely three seconds after the aircraft's lift-off. It also quoted a pilot asking his colleagues as to why he cut off. The colleague denied having done so. The report, however, didn't reveal any cause or recommended any action, and many experts say it left more questions than it provided answers. Commercial pilot associations have cautioned people against drawing any conclusions until the investigation is into aircraft accidents are a cumbersome process and may or may not come to a conclusion. Sometimes they could take years and different investigators involved may contradict each other's findings.- EndsMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Ahmedabad Plane Crash
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
When The US Bombed This Japanese City 12 Hours Before WWII Ended
World War II was hours from ending when the sky over Japan's Kumagaya turned orange. In one corner of the city, a woman gave birth. American bombers approached, their bellies full of napalm. She had no shelter and no time. By dawn, her daughter, Kazumi Yoneda, would be one of the youngest survivors of the last firebombing raid of WWII. That night, August 14, 1945, nearly 90 US B-29 bombers dropped more than 6,000 tonnes of incendiaries on Kumagaya. At least 260 people were killed, thousands injured, and three-quarters of the city turned to ash. All in 12 hours. The war ended with the voice of Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's surrender. Kazumi Yoneda would later write of her birth in a book of poetry titled 'The Day I Was Born': " The day I was born, flames devoured the city. My mother gave birth, held me close - And stood among The ruins of her home. Her body gave no mother's milk She held her ever-crying child in her arms." Kumagaya, with a population of under 50,000, was not a major industrial centre. It had a small air academy and a modest aircraft parts facility, but many have since questioned the justification for the raid. According to war correspondent Homer Bigart, even some of the bomber crews were uneasy, questioning the necessity of targeting what he called "a pathetically small city of little obvious importance." The aircrews, idle since Nagasaki, were told Kumagaya had rail yards and factories, enough to justify one last raid. They were also told to listen for a code word: 'Utah'. If they heard it, Japan had surrendered, and they could turn back. The code word never came. Pilot Vivian Lock, who flew that night, later wrote, "I have always regretted all the innocent people killed, injured and the loss of home and property." The B-29 crews, he said, kept asking mid-flight: "Have you heard anything yet?" hoping for 'Utah'. Kazue Hojo, 7, ran with her family through the burning streets. A shard of metal tore into her mother's neck. Her baby brother was burned. "It was bright like daytime," she recalled. By morning, the city was flattened. Survivors wept in the streets. "That's my most painful memory of the war," Ms Hojo told CNN. At Sekijoji Temple, a statue of monk Kobodaishi bears a scorched face, rescued by a priest as the temple collapsed. For decades, the statue was hidden until a peace museum asked to show it. Students cried when they saw it. They asked questions. "If people are to learn about peace, they can see the statue," said 79-year-old head priest Tetsuya Okayasu. The Kumagaya raid was part of General Curtis LeMay's incendiary campaign, which had already devastated dozens of Japanese cities, including Tokyo, where a single night of bombing in March 1945 killed more than 1 lakh people.
The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
AI 171 Crash: Fuel Cutoff and a Fatal Plunge
On a June morning, Air India flight AI171 lifted off from Ahmedabad, bound for London. The aircraft was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner — among the most advanced long-haul jets in service. But less than a minute after takeoff, the plane crashed. Two hundred and sixty people were killed. Only one survived. It was India's deadliest air disaster in nearly three decades. Now, a preliminary investigation points to a chilling cause: fuel to both engines was cut off just after takeoff. The engines lost thrust. The plane had neither the altitude nor the time to recover. What happened in those final seconds? Was it a technical failure or human error? Guest: Jagriti Chandra, Special Correspondent at The Hindu covering aviation Host: Anupama Chandrasekaran Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
