Numbers of pilots have opened up about some extreme allegations on compromising flight safety by private airlines after the incident of US-Bangla Airlines plane crash at Tribhuvan International Airport that claimed 51 lives. The professional pilots of Bangladesh said that it was inevitable.
The pilots whose identities are kept unrevealed considering job safety said how the airlines in their bid to maximize profit allegedly overwork their pilots, send-off flights even when the rules don’t permit, or even sometimes hide defects because logging them would mean grounding of aircraft at a huge loss and commented the tragic accident was just waiting to happen.
The pilots commented on safety culture for airlines and said that the lack of it in private sector is simply outrageous. The pilots want their opinions and concern to be assessed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and the government before taking appropriate actions to address the grim issues as human lives is in stake.
The pilots told that they are forced to operate by their management in situations where it’s prudent not to fly for schedule regularity and commercial consideration. They said that private carriers tend to and do approaches well below minimum visibility, departing for a destination with very marginal weather or visibility, compromising on technical issues, flying without weather radar, forbidding pilots to give entry in the engineering log, especially at outstations as grounding would cost money for the carriers.
The companies don’t accept “no” for an answer when it comes to flying even in extreme conditions. A captain, who flies Dreamliners for a Middle Eastern airline, alleged pilots were even fired from private companies for refusing to accept unsafe operation.
On March 12, at least 51 people were killed as the US-Bangla Airlines aircraft crashed and burst into flames while landing at the Kathmandu airport in Nepal. Twenty-eight Bangladeshis, 22 Nepalese, and one Chinese citizen were killed in the deadly crash.
A joint-team of experts would soon sit to decide where the plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorders would be decoded, Yagya Prasad Gautam, chief of the probe committee formed by the Nepalese government and team of investigators from Bangladesh would join the Canadian and Nepalese officials for research.
Source: bdnews24
