Air India A321 enroute on Apr 12th 2013, 2 cabin crew in cockpit, autopilot disconnected unintentionally
Last Update: June 20, 2013 / 15:27:50 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Apr 12, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Air India
Flight number
AI-333
Departure
Bangkok, Thailand
Destination
New Delhi, India
Aircraft Registration
VT-PPM
Aircraft Type
Airbus A321
ICAO Type Designator
A321
India's press, led by the "Times of India" and "Mumbai Mirror", reports that the first officer had taken a toilet break, a flight attendant had been asked to enter the cockpit according to standard operating procedures to monitor the captain and had taken the first officer's seat. The captain then ordered a second flight attendant to the cockpit, left his seat, instructed her to take the left hand seat, briefed both flight attendants how to operate the aircraft on autopilot and left the cockpit. When one of the flight attendants accidentally disconnected the autopilot about 40 minutes later, both flight crew rushed to the cockpit and recovered the aircraft.
Air India released a statement stating, that the aircraft was under control by flight crew at all times, at no time the flight attendants were at the controls of the aircraft. However, two cabin crew had a prolonged stay in the cockpit, during their "overstay" the first officer - in his seat - accidentally disconnected the autopilot probably as result of distraction while interacting with cabin crew and quickly re-connected the autopilot. Both flight crew and both cabin crew have been suspended pending investigation.
On May 4th 2013 India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, that the crew consisted of two pilots and 7 flight attendants. Two of the flight attendants were on the flight deck for almost the whole flight in violation of safety rules. The autopilot was briefly disconnected when the aircraft was enroute at FL330. A member of the crew reported the incident to the DGCA under the voluntary disclosure scheme.
On Jun 20th 2013 India's DGCA reported, that the captain of the flight as well as the two flight attendants were suspended for three months, the first officer was not reprimanded. The investigation so far determined purely based on testimonies by the crew and airline internal inquiries due to the lack of cockpit voice recordings that according to testimony had been erased accidentally, that two flight attendants entered the cockpit to serve tea although no refreshments had been ordered by the flight crew. The flight attendants subsequently remained in the cockpit chatting about private matters like cinema and marriages. The captain admitted that due to this distraction he unknowingly disconnected the autopilot while enroute at FL330 and, by own admission, needed some time to recognize the mistake and reconnect the autopilot.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Apr 12, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Air India
Flight number
AI-333
Departure
Bangkok, Thailand
Destination
New Delhi, India
Aircraft Registration
VT-PPM
Aircraft Type
Airbus A321
ICAO Type Designator
A321
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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