From: bala@ulysses.att.com (Bala Krishnamurthy)
Subject: Voice Recorder May Indicate Whether Pilot Caused Delhi Crash
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:41:26 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Keywords: crash ia


apnews reports:
	   NEW DELHI, India (AP) _ Investigators on Sunday examined a
cockpit voice recorder for clues to whether the pilot of a
passenger plane that crashed at a foggy airport ignored an order
not to land.
	   All 163 people aboard leaped out, minutes before the wreckage
was engulfed in flames Saturday. Only six were hospitalized with
injuries.
	   On Sunday, the nation's newspapers were filled with stories
about the passengers' and crew's incredible escape, and speculation
on the cause of the crash.
	   The Russian-built TU-154 jetliner, leased from Uzbekistan
Airlines, crashed at Indira Gandhi International Airport before on
a flight from Hyderabad, 1,000 miles south of New Delhi.
	   Some news reports said the Uzbek pilot _ hired to replace
striking pilots of state-owned Indian Airlines _ didn't understand
the order not to land because he doesn't speak English.
	   Others said he landed because he was too tired, after a
long-delayed domestic flight, to fly to another airport. Other
reports blamed pilot error, saying the jetliner landed off course
and rammed into lights at the beginning of the runway.
	   Passenger Navin Kohli, 34, said the plane overturned, spun
around in a circle and that all the lights went out.
	   He said people began to scream but stopped after few minutes,
opened their seat belts and began to crawl through aisles, which
were lit by small fires burning outside.
	   ``There was a loud bump when the plane touched the ground,''
Kohli said in a telephone interview from his home in New Delhi.
	   ``I didn't realize anything was wrong. Then there was a series
of bumps, jarring sounds and crashes. I saw myself tilting and
going up. At that point, I realized I was in the middle of a crash.
I knew I was dying. It was terrifying. I was helpless.''
	   Kohli said he and another man pushed open an emergency exit and
stepped out of the plane. He was amazed how easy that was.
	   ``Because the plane was upside down, the door wasn't far from
the ground, so it was like stepping out of my house. Within three
or four minutes everyone had gotten out and stood there shivering
in the cold, foggy dampness,'' he said.
	   The federal Directorate General of Civil Aviation appointed an
inspector to investigate the crash, and he immediately received the
cockpit voice recorder.
	   Indian Airlines has been leasing six of the TU-154s since
hundreds of pilots went on strike a month ago, demanding higher
wages and better benefits. After the crash, the government ordered
the other five TU-154s grounded.
	   The state-run airline is operating a skeleton service using
foreign pilots and senior Indian pilots who are not union members.
	   The union had warned that the TU-154 planes and pilots would put
the airline's customers at risk, and the crash could put pressure
on the airline to negotiate a settlement to the strike.
	   Many passengers, including Kohli, criticized the airline and the
airport for taking so long to reach the scene.
	   Although the plane crashed at 4:06 a.m., ``the first jeep
arrived at the scene only at 4:30 a.m., the first fire engine only
at 4:40 a.m.,'' Robert Glass, a British lawyer, told Sunday's
Indian Express newspaper.

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