DGCA bans 90 SpiceJet pilots from flying Boeing 737 MAX: These 5 air disasters tell you why
When we hear Boeing 737 MAX, the aircraft model, the first thing that pops up in mind is the two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. The tragedy of the Malaysian Lion Air Flight 610 crash and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which together killed 346 people (no survivors), still sends a chill down the spine.
The aircraft model is once again in news, and in India this time around. However, it’s not due to the aircraft itself. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has banned 90 pilots of SpiceJet from operating the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft till they undergo re-training.
Why have the pilots been banned? During an observation of the training of the pilots at SpiceJet, it was found that the 90 pilots were not trained to satisfaction. Sources told India Today that the ‘stick shaker’, a part of the aircraft that rapidly and noisily vibrates in the cockpit warning that the plane is resisting lift, had been disabled during the simulation training. Hence, the 90 pilots were untrained on what do to during such an event.
What is a stick shaker in aviation? ‘Stick shakers’, like the one depicted in the video below, warns the pilots of an impending ‘stall’. Now when a plane is stalled, it doesn’t mean it falls off the sky; but that the plane goes dangerously out of control and the pilots need to bring it back under control.
Once a plane goes into an aggravated stall, it’s difficult to bring the plane under control.
In a stall, a plane dangerously climbs with its nose up. But a severe nose-up means that the plane will stop climbing and resist further lift, which means that the plane will start falling with its nose up.
Here are 5 instances of plane crashes due to a stall:
1. MIAMI PLANE CRASH ON HIGHWAY
In 1997, a Fine Air cargo plane took off, pitched up, stalled and crashed into the ground, through a highway and into a mall’s parking lot, killing all 4 onboard and one person on the ground.
The video is a reenactment of the fatal crash.
2. MEDITERRANEAN SEA CRASH
In 2008, XL Airways Germany Flight 888T during a test crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, off a French coast killing all 7 people on board. The plane also went into a stall, and while the pilots used textbook methods to get it back in control, it didn’t work.
The video is an animation of the crash.
3. NATIONAL AIRLINES FLIGHT 102
In 2013, the National Airlines Flight 102 cargo flight took off from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, and was flying to Al Maktoum airport in Dubai. However, part of the cargo broke off in the plane and rolled to the back of the aircraft, disabling rear flight control systems. The pilots were unable to make a recovery from the impending stall. The plane crashed, killing all 7 people on board.
Usually, cargo plane crashes also occur due to improperly secured cargo breaking loose.
4. DEEP STALL DUE TO PILOT ERROR CRASH
In 2005, the West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 took off from Panama City and was headed to France with a total of 160 people on board. However, the plane crashed in Venezuela due to what is reported as pilot error and lack of situational awareness, killing everyone on board. The plane’s speed had decreased and it entered a stall, but the crew were mistaking the error to a double engine flame out and didn’t do anything to get the plane out of the stall.
The video above is an animation of the crash.
5. AIA FLIGHT 808
American International Airways (AIA, now Kalitta Air) Flight 808, another cargo flight, crashed in 1993 on landing at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Fortunately, all the 3 crew members survived the crash with serious injuries. The plane crashed due to a stall and also because pilots were unable to bring it under control partly due to fatigue.
Does the temporary pilot ban have anything to do with the previous Boeing 737 MAX crashes? The 2018 and 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crashes were a result of criminal negligence by the aircraft manufacturer – Boeing. They failed to tell the pilots that the new models of the aircraft had something called the MCAS system installed. The MCAS system basically is fitted to prevent the airplane from tipping up dangerously, like in a stall, and it forces the plane’s nose to dive. While the system is helpful in cases where a plane gets into a dangerous stall position, Boeing and the US FAA both refuted media reports that the MCAS is an anti-stall system. Boeing and the US FAA said, “Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) – flight control law implemented on the 737 MAX to improve aircraft handling characteristics and decrease pitch-up tendency at elevated angles of attack.”
SpiceJet is the only airline in India that has 11 Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts in its fleet. Akasa Air is also set to have a fleet of the same aircraft, but it has not yet arrived.