The pilot of the US-Bangla plane that crashed at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport in March, killing 51 people, appears to have lied to the control tower during the landing procedure and was smoking continuously inside the cockpit during the one-hour flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu.

According to details of the official investigation led by the Nepal government, a copy of which was obtained exclusively by the Post, Captain Abid Sultan was going through tremendous personal mental stress and anxiety, and a series of erroneous decisions on his part led to the crash of the Flight BS211.

Throughout the flight, Sultan was engaged in erratic behaviour that marked a departure from his usual character-signs that should have immediately raised red flags, Nepali investigators concluded in the report.

Six minutes before the landing time, Sultan had confirmed that the plane’s landing gear was down and locked. “Gears down, three greens,” the pilot said, according to the report, referring to the electrical indicator lights inside the cockpit.

However, when co-pilot Prithula Rashid conducted a final landing checklist, the landing gears were not down. Minutes later, the plane carrying 67 passengers and four crew members burst into flames after missing the runway during its second landing attempt.

The majority of the 22 Nepalis killed in the crash were medical students who had come home on a two-month leave before their final year results were published. Only 20 passengers survived the crash.

Investigators say Sultan had been smoking cigarettes frequently during the hour-long flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu. The former Bangladeshi Air Force pilot, who had clocked more than 5,500 flying hours, had not disclosed to the airlines that he was a smoker, leading investigators to conclude that Sultan was undergoing severe mental stress inside the cockpit.

Sultan had joined US-Bangla in 2015. Prior to flying commercial flights, he had served in the Bangladesh Air Force, and according to reports, had a history of depression. While in the Bangladesh Air Force, back in 1993, he had been removed from active duty after a psychiatric assessment. But he was re-evaluated by a psychiatrist back on January 9, 2002, and had been declared fit for flying.

The report said that Sultan’s detail medical history was not reviewed by US-Bangla Airlines when he was hired. Kamrul Islam, general manager and spokesperson for the US-Bangla Airlines, declined the Post’s request for comment.

However, the report clarifies that Sultan did not exhibit any recurring mental issues during the medical examinations from 2002 to 2018.

Source: Kathmandupost

BDST: 1542 HRS, AUG 27, 2018
AP/SMS