The human factor in determining safe times to fly in bad weather conditions remains unchanged even with the best technology, General Manager of Air Services Limited (ASL) Fazel Khan has emphasized.
Poor pilot judgement was cited as one of the reasons for the ASL plane crash near Kopinang on April 25 last year. This has been acknowledged, but in the absence of adequate weather forecasting equipment, Khan said it still came down to the individual’s judgement.
The local airline is heeding the recommendations of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) following the disaster in which three persons, including pilot Rohan Sharma, were killed and now emphasizes certain safety aspects.
A report on the crash, which was made available to this newspaper in September this year, had cited the lack of proper weather information, bad weather and the pilot’s decision to continue the flight under such conditions as contributory factors.
It stated that when Sharma continued with the flight in poor weather he breached aviation requirements for weather limitations. Those requirements advise that “No person will commence a flight to be conducted in accordance with Visual Flight Rules (VFR) unless available meteorological reports, or a combination of reports and forecasts indicate that the meteorological conditions along the route, or that part of the route to be flown under VFR, will at the appropriate time allow VFR operations.”
It was based on this finding that the GCAA decided to conduct a seminar with all its pilots on the requirements to carefully assimilate weather information especially if the information is a personal view of an individual’s physical observation of an assessment of the weather in the absence of scientific weather information. It also called on ASL to emphasise to its pilots the importance of adhering to the Guyana Aviation Requirements (GAR) and the company’s flight operations manual with regard to flights and continuing flights.
Limitations
As it stands, pilots flying from Ogle basically second guess weather situations particularly in bad weather conditions, since the necessary forecasting equipment remains unavailable, a limitation which the national aviation body acknowledged in its report.
Captain Rohan Sharma on that fateful day, according to the GCAA report, was delayed for a total of three and half hours at two destinations because of heavy rainfall.
He requested weather information from his final destination, Kopinang, twice. Earlier he was told the weather was now clearing up and the rain had just stopped but that the airstrip was wet. This advice was followed by a second report that told Sharma “there was mild sunshine with blue skies at Kopinang but the area at Maikwak/Kwebanna side of the Pakaraima Mountain range was dark and the weather was bad. He was also told that the airstrip was still wet and the cloud ceiling was approximately 1500 feet,” the report said.
Captain Sharma proceeded on his flight around 6.16 pm and crashed into dense forest some time during the flight, the report had said.
“Sharma like other pilots used his judgement and imagination,” Khan emphasized.
Khan noted that apart from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the situation of inadequate weather forecasting equipment has for many years been the case.
He noted however that with some overall country weather information available on the internet, pilots sometimes take heed but noted that the information provided there was not necessarily what was happening on the ground in several areas.
He pointed out too that there are some areas where no communication is available, not even to the police and noted another instance which involved one of the airline’s aircraft recently.
Khan said a pilot had left for Orinduik and had landed but the base station was not sure of this since the pilot’s only form of communication, his radio, encountered some problems. For three hours, he said, they had not heard from the pilot and had no choice but to send in another aircraft just to ensure that the plane had landed and its pilot was safe. He explained that even when the best technology existed to assist in monitoring weather conditions, the human factor remains constant.
Meanwhile, Khan said he felt the report was fair.
On April 25, 2007, during its third flight on that day by Sharma, the ASL aircraft struck the top of the Yurubarrow Mountain in Region Eight, about 30 feet from the peak on the Maikwak side; three minutes from its planned destination – Kopinang.
The plane was flying well below visual meteorological conditions and Captain Sharma, passengers Earnestina Moses and two-month-old Britney Perreira perished in the accident. The baby’s mother Bernice and her now six-year-old son Arnold Perreira survived and made a harrowing trek to safety down the mountain.
