Even as the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) slammed the crew of Jet Airways flight 9W 2302 for serious procedural lapses and suspended 10 of them for the false fire alarm incident at Mumbai airport on Friday night,a preliminary probe has found that the chaotic chain of events was triggered by two panicky crew members who were travelling as passengers. The fire alarm on the Mumbai-Chennai flight which was taxiing towards the runway led to an emergency evacuation,causing injuries to about a dozen passengers,some of whom jumped off the wings and suffered fractures. DGCA chief Nasim Zaidi told The Sunday Express that two of the nine additional crew members who were travelling as passengers and were seated in 35A and 35B of the Jet Konnect flight,were apparently spooked by the glare of anti-collision beacons on the top and bottom of the aircraft and cried fire. According to the sequence of events reconstructed by the preliminary probe,the additional crew member in 35 A told his colleague in 35 B that the left engine was on fire. This person went up to the telephone installed at the back of the aircraft for internal communication,called up the pilot,and raised a fire alarm. This was the first violation of procedure,Zaidi said. The additional crew member was travelling as a passenger. He had no business calling the pilot in command directly. Only assigned cabin crew can interact with the captain, Zaidi said. After calling the commander,the additional crew member also informed the cabin crew member on duty,seated near the left backdoor of the aircraft,about the fire. When the captain called this crew member,she confirmed the fire. This led the captain to report a fire in the port side engine to Air Traffic Control at 8.55 pm,and within three minutes,fire tenders and emergency services were in place beside the aircraft. The captain also ordered evacuation of the aircraft. This meant the crew had to ensure all passengers were out of the plane in 90 seconds. This was done by 9.02 pm,airport officials said. But during the evacuation,the crew made another mistake by deploying all emergency slide chutes,according to the DGCA. When the fire was on the left side of the aircraft,the crew should not have deployed the chutes on the left. We have noticed many similar procedural errors by the crew which we are taking serious note of. Next week,a meeting has been called with all airline heads to discuss crew training programs. We want to reinforce the strictest training procedures, Zaidi said. Even the pilots failed to fully follow standard operating procedures laid down to deal with a fire,the DGCA said. When there is a fire alarm in the cockpit,a pilot is supposed to pull what are called the fire handles for the left engine,the right engine and the auxiliary power unit. This is supposed to be followed up by discharging the three fire extinguishers. While the pilot of 9W 2302 pulled the fire handles,he did not follow it through with discharging the extinguishers,the DGCA has found. Following the preliminary probe,the regulator has not only suspended the two pilots and four crew members on duty,but also four additional crew members who were travelling as passengers. After the evacuation,a DGCA team spent the night checking the aircraft for smoke and found that there had been no cockpit fire alarm or any sign of fire in the engines. No fire or smoke was observed in the engine area. Both the engines were checked and boroscope inspection was carried out. No abnormality was observed in the engines and its systems. The Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Digital Flight Data Recorder have been removed, a DGCA statement said. Many passengers on the flight also did not know how to use the emergency exits,air safety experts said. Of the 12 passengers injured,three sustained fractures after jumping off the over-wing exits. The plane was a Boeing 737-800,which does not have emergency chutes on its over-wing exits. Passengers have to get out of the exit and go to the back of the wing and slide or jump from a small height. Some passengers probably expected an emergency chute,but panicked when they did not see one, said A Ranganathan,a former pilot who is a member of DGCAs Civil Aviation Air Safety Advisory Council. You dont need a slide in case of an evacuation at the wing with this aircraft as the wing is quite low. In this case,the passengers probably did not read the instruction manual on evacuation properly and panicked. They must have jumped from the front of the wing and suffered fractures. Expressing regret for the incident,Jet Airways has said that the commander ordered evacuation as a precautionary measure even though there had been no cockpit fire alarm. The precautionary evacuation was carried out in the interest of safety of the guests and the crew. The crew carried out the evacuation in accordance with standard operating procedures. Subsequent inspection of the engine has indicated that there was no fire. A formal inquiry has been initiated by the DGCA and Jet Airways is fully co-operating and providing all necessary assistance, the airline said.
