The report on accident of Air India Express Flight IX-812 highlighted several factors which resulted in the tragic loss of 158 lives [1]. Limiting to the human factors alone, there were both physiological limitations of the crew and failure of crew resource management (CRM), besides organisational shortcomings.
Category: Human Physiology
Fatigued Pilots! What Happened to Flight IX-812
Air India’s low cost airline, Air India Express, operates a scheduled Quick Turn Around flight IX-811/812 on Mangalore-Dubai-Managlore sector. The onward flight from Mangalore is at 21:35 H (IST) while the return from Dubai is scheduled at 02:45 H (IST, local time 01:15 H), to arrive at Managlore at 06:30 H (IST). On 22 May …
Tired eh! Physical Cost of AGSM
Fatigue is the cost of correctly performed Anti-G straining manoeuvre (AGSM) to fight against the +Gz forces during air combat. Being an isometric exercise, akin to a 50 or 100 m race or weight lifting, the muscles maintain sustained contraction during AGSM to generate energy anaerobically. Thus time “to fatigue” and of “fatigue recovery” determine …
Protection against the ‘G’
Average relaxed ‘G’ tolerance of combat aircrew varies between 4 to 5G, although the range may be 3 to 8G. Yet, one must note there are large individual variations in G tolerance and even in the same individual, the tolerance may vary on different days or different times of the day. It is here that …
G-LOC Demystified
G-LOC has been implicated in various combat aircraft mishaps. Incidence of in-flight G-LOC in India is 11%, while it is 12 and 19% in USAF and RAF, respectively. Interestingly, G-LOC is more likely to occur in a trainee pilot, co-pilot or weapon system operator, who is caught unaware by the sudden onset of G or …