Air crews fasten mental seatbelts against trauma
A day after the deadly
Air India crash
, a copilot withdrew from a scheduled flight even after reporting for duty. His colleagues said the pilot mentioned he was feeling ill, though he did not show any visible physical discomfort. The airline later operated the flight with a separate crew.
The June 12
Air India
crash killed hundreds and sent shockwaves that are still reverberating through the aviation industry. Flight crews have the added responsibility of dealing with their own grief and fears, while also calming the flying public.
'I could not help but put myself in the shoes of those on board,' a senior pilot wrote in an internal chat group of an airline. 'As someone who is always in transit — boarding flights, chasing on-time performance — (I felt) it could have been any one of us.'
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Troubling Theories
'What struck me hardest was not the crash alone but the quiet, overlooked reality of how we often leave home. No hugs. No pause. No proper goodbye. Just a rush out the door, a distracted wave, or, worse, leaving after a fight or silence. Today reminded me how fragile it all is. And how precious,' the pilot wrote.
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His line of thought is a common refrain among airline crews in India.
Pilots and flight attendants are highly-trained professionals, with sound physical fitness and mental alertness being their core job criteria. However, for many of them, it is still difficult to accept the Air India tragedy, more so due to Boeing 787's enviable safety record.
The Dreamliner clocked millions of flying hours across airlines globally and never saw a fatal crash prior to Ahmedabad. The plane has multiple inbuilt redundancies for critical components.
Especially then, for people who trust technology thousands of feet up in the air, the helplessness of the Ahmedabad crew strikes deep.
A grainy video captured on a smartphone by a student showed the ill-fated aircraft taking off, then descending before exploding into a ball of fire.
With a probe into the accident in its initial phase, various theories suggest dual engine failure to possible sabotage.
'We are taught that a double-engine failure is kind of impossible, if not caused by external factors like a bird hit,' said a pilot who operates an aircraft similar to the 787. '(But now) though we are highly trained, doubt starts creeping into the mind; it's natural.
Following the crash, pilots have become extra cautious about minute faults in an aircraft, unlike before, he said. 'I am questioning the status of every item in the minimum equipment list (MEL),' the pilot said. MEL specifies which equipment can be inoperative on an aircraft while still allowing it to operate safely.
A double engine failure occurring seconds after take-off, when the plane was only several hundred feet off the ground, would have left the two pilots without any time to respond to the emergency.
'Go to the stopwatch on your smartphone. Press start. Wait for 32 seconds. Press stop. Now ask yourself: What could you do in that time? Brush your teeth? Have a shower? Wear your clothes? Have a cup of coffee? None of the above. That is the time the pilots of AI 171 got,' read a message on a pilot's social media group.
No Single Answer Yet
Continuous coverage on television and social media is further fuelling panic, multiple airline crews told ET, requesting for factual reporting.
'The media starts to conduct parallel trials with ill-informed guests making unsubstantiated accusations. This leads to severe mental trauma and becomes a stumbling block in their performance,' Parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi said in a letter to civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu, urging guidelines for reporting aviation accidents.
Airlines are also rushing to respond to the new crisis while hoping that it would be self-healing. Air India has established a dedicated 'peer group' to provide mental health support and counselling for crew. Comprising former Air Force officers and experienced female pilots, the group offers pre-flight counselling and emotional support.
'There is no uniform fix to this. It will depend on his/her mental strength on how quickly they can cope with it,' an airline executive said.
As airline crews cope with the tragedy and lean on improved mental health resources, they are also returning to the skies. 'When something like this happens, it makes it almost impossible not to feel the weight of the souls on board. I was scared but since I was already at the airport, I decided to be the strength to my team. I check on my colleagues after work and we reassure each other,' said a flight attendant working for Air India.
Family members too are burying their fears under hope. 'I used to be very proud of that crisp white shirt but now my heart feels heavy when either of them wears that uniform,' said a mother of two pilot sons. 'Have we chosen a dangerous profession for our sons, I sometimes think. But my husband tells me, there were 29 medical students in the college who also died. Did they choose the wrong profession?'
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