The Institute for the Professional Investigation of the Causes of Aircraft Accidents completed the investigation of last year’s Smartwings flight from the Greek island of Samos to Prague, when the aircraft flew almost the entire route with only one engine and did not land in an emergency. According to the findings of the institute, the captain of the aircraft Pavel Veselý repeatedly made mistakes, a total of twenty-one times.
In the final report, the institute drew attention to a total of 21 mistakes of the captain of the aircraft, who lost the post of chief pilot of the airline after this incident. “He ignored the co-pilot’s justified request for an accelerated reduction of the flight level due to the declining speed of the aircraft after the power unit was shut down, and as a result caused the gradation of stress in the crew,” said the report. zdopravy.cz.
The Smartwings aircraft flew from the Greek island of Samos to Prague on August 22. The aircraft stopped working during the flight over the Aegean Sea, the left engine, which the crew failed to restart. The machine then continued at a lower flight level to Prague. There were 170 people on board.
The list of errors also includes, for example, concealing a technical problem from air traffic control centers in a number of countries. He reported the problems only to the headquarters in Athens, where he also stated that a suitable airport for landing would be Prague. “Although he knew at the time of this statement that he did not have enough fuel to achieve it,” the report said.
At the same time, the report states that on the departure from Prague to Samos, the mechanics warned of engine vibrations. According to the report, capital also took risks in terms of fuel. “He did not know the cause of the engine shutdown, and therefore could not know whether the engine shutdown No. 1 was not caused by fuel contamination,” the investigators write.
Psychological tests for the captain
The institute recommended that pilot Veselý perform a psychological examination, because he still believes that he made the right decision. At the same time, the Civil Aviation Authority sent an inspection to the company.
Cheerful is worth making the right decision. “I am convinced that my extensive flight experience is large enough to be able to assess all the risks associated with the decision-making process, but I am aware that circumstances may arise that deserve to be treated with due care,” said the former. captain on notice.
Smartwings originally defended the chief pilot’s approach, but later dismissed Veselý from the position of flight director. This year, the company also defended a security audit.
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