MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Most
pilots are sometimes faced with an emergent situation wherein the responses
need to be prompt, correct and precise. I, then Lt R Dutta and my crew, Lt
Shubhranshu (copilot) and LtCdr NI Arif(O), who had just joined the sqdn, faced
one such situation on the fateful day of 09 Dec 87, during a CTF (Check Test
Flight) on our twin-prop Islander, IN-132 at INS Garuda, Cochin.
The ATC
and Met briefing at 0730 hrs on the day was standard as the sky was CAVOK
(Clouds and Visibility OK). We took-off
at 0810 hrs after a quick bite, turned downwind climbing to 3000 ft. I requested for sector South, which was
promptly cleared as a civil flight was inbound. After having levelled off at
3000 ft, the feathering and unfeathering of the port engine was executed as per the
CTF schedule. This involves switching
off the port engine and checking the climb performance of the starboard engine. Having checked the single-engine climb performance
of stbd engine, a slow climbing turn to port was executed towards the
airfield. The port engine was relit and
power was checked at various throttle settings.
All parameters normal, warning lights off, the starboard engine was
feathered (switched off) for a single-engine climb performance check on the port
engine. As the port throttle was being opened, sudden but slight yaw was felt
to the left with the engine noise dying down.
Lo! The port engine had FAILED.
The stbd engine was in feathered (switched off) condition. No panic yet.
I handed over the flying controls to my copilot, aircraft trimmed for 65
kts, heading towards the runway 35 threshold and attempted to relight the stbd
engine. All checks were carried out in
the correct sequence and the starter button pressed. The stbd propeller cranked intermittently but
did not pick up. I piped up with the
Mayday call, with intentions of a dead stick landing. All unfeathering checks were repeated and the
next attempt also lead to a similar result.
The altimeter was slowly winding down passing through 2500 ft. An attempt was made to restart port engine,
but no joy. Again an attempt was made to
unfeather the stbd engine which cranked intermittently. The aircraft was gliding down through 1500 ft
and it was appreciated that the aircraft was slightly below the glide path with
the approach thick with Palm trees, a factory ahead (our 500 ft landmark for
correct approach with both engines), followed by the Mattencheri channel, the
railway line, the Wellington road and then the threshold of Runway 35. Ditching appeared to be inevitable. I asked my copilot to turn right towards the
backwaters, as I once again attempted a relight of engines but in vain.
Copilot piped up “ Approaching 500 ft, Sir”.
Trying to maintain my cool I took over the flying controls and piped up on RT, “Mayday, Mayday,
Mayday…IN 132 both engines failed, ditching 2nm South-East”. ATC acknowledged, “Roger, 132 your homing
348”.
Aircraft
fated for ditching, gliding straight along the channel south of the Cochin sailing club, the
crew prepared for the SOP rehearsed live emergency and escape drills. As the altimeter was winding down it appeared
as if time compression was taking place.
Slowly the aircraft was rounded off into the landing attitude, missing the
fishing stakes by a few feet. Speed
washing off, controls held firmly, “Prepare for escape, touching down
now”. The aircraft sliced through the
water and the nose plunged down steep, as the tail hit the water, despite full
backward pressure on the control column. Due to the sudden instantaneous
deceleration, the cabin map reading light got dislodged from its holder and hit
the windscreen and broke it. The cold water
started gushing in the dark cabin. I
held my breath as I attempted to unbuckle my seat belt which was getting
stuck. Both my crew had safely escaped
out through their emergency windows. I struggled and slackened the seat belt, but
couldn't unbuckle it… even as the water was soon filling up the cockpit. My endurance was
almost at the threshold with a total Red Out.
’craving for one breath, struggling for one molecule of Oxygen…. “Is it
THE END?”...….I had entered the ‘twilight zone’ connecting the ‘Tunnel of Death’….
To
return from the ‘Tunnel of Death’, the survivor requires a ‘Hand of God’….An
unknown Force had swung my left elbow hard onto the Left wind-shield. And
surprisingly the glass window got dislodged. (Hand of God)… Incidentally, the
left window isn’t incorporated with the emergency exit, which is only on the
copilot’s window. Still holding my
breath, keeping the Tunnel of Death at bay, I struggled to further loosen my
belt.…, when I managed to unbuckle my seat belt and made my way out through the
window.
Took a
deep ‘breath of LIFE’ on surfacing, as I thanked the almighty and my stars. The aircraft was totally submerged with the
fin sticking out. Shubhranshu and Arif,
who were sitting on the cabin top, were delighted and heaved a sigh of relief
on seeing me. They said I was in the Cockpit for 2 to 3 mins, and Shubhranshu
was contemplating to go in fetch me out... Still, in a bit of shock, we shook
hands as we tried hard to smile. A lot of fishing boats had enveloped us to
give us a helping hand. We could see two ferries approaching the aircraft. There was no sign of SAR Helo yet. The aircraft
started sinking nose down, as the water had filled up in the fuselage. We swam towards one of the ferry-boats and
came alongside, south of Cochin,
the boat crew were very kind and courteous and the locals gathered around
us. Most of them had seen the blue-bird
gliding down into the channel. We must
have been a strange sight in our drenched overalls as we walked into a govt
school to ring up the Ops room of INS Garuda.
When Arif contacted the station Base Ops, he retorted, “Eh Arif, please
don’t disturb me, I am tackling a live emergency”, and hung up. Contact was made again and Base Ops was
informed that we indeed were the survivors of the ill-fated aircraft and
conveyed our position. The Ops room must have heaved a sigh of relief since
the two SAR helos launched at the Mayday call had not sighted the ditched
Islander yet. And there was no way that
they could have. The ATC had obtained the aircraft’s homing as 348, and without
converting into bearing had launched the SAR helos on bearing 348 from the
airport at 2 NM, which happens to be the area of Cochin harbour mouth, exactly
reciprocal to our ditching point. I can visualize the greater panic in the ATC than in the cockpit.
The Ops
room on obtaining our position on landline realized the folly of the ATC. As we waited for the Helos our COS RAdm PP Sivamani arrived in the staff car to meet us and check on our well being. The diverted helos arrived at our site of ditching and we were winched up by Cdr Chandana and Lt Sihota and bought to ATC, INS Garuda.
We
were given a warm welcome by Cdr Dhillon,(our Sqdn Cdr) and Cdr G Sharma,
Cdr(Air) as the helo dropped us in front of the ATC. We were escorted to the Garuda MI room in an Ambulance. The PMO soon did our post-flight medical and cleared us to go. Meanwhile, our C-in-C, VAdm L Ramdas (later CNS) arrived in his Flag Car and said, "Thank God you all are alive." The Adm smilingly shook hands with us to pep-up our morale. Cdr Dhillon had got Mrs Shahida Arif picked
up, who was eagerly waiting for us at the sqn besides all the staff of 550.
The sparkle in her eyes glittered as she invited us to a hot steaming and
delicious lunch at Katari Baugh.
The
aircraft was recovered within 36 hours from the channel and brought to the
south jetty. The BOI, presided over by Cdr SJ Sarma from Goa,
grilled the crew for the next one week to ascertain the cause of failure of
both engines. Lt IS Deen, the technical member worked beyond the normal call of
his duty, putting the engine parts together to come to a logical conclusion. The
technical inspection of the engines revealed that the port air-induction hose
had collapsed in flight leading to the failure of the port engine and the starter
was getting stuck intermittently leading
to non relight of the stbd feathered engine.
This
was probably the first successful ditching of Islander of the Squadron, where
the crew having survived had tested the ditching characteristics of the
aircraft realistically.
A
couple of days later, when during the evening hours on stroll to the AED
hangar, I patted the cowling of my mother Islander – 132, my eyes did become
moist, for She had ferried so many of us for thousands of hours on innumerable
occasions, carrying us in her womb, and now lay helpless injured forever. She
seemed to convey her melancholy Best wishes as I utter her a Final Good-Bye…..
*** ‘LUCK’ is the most precious commodity a pilot
carries to manage – to
live – to fly another day.
About the Author
Commander Rajinder Dutta (Retd) has been a Naval Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with about 3000 hrs of flying on various fixed wing Aircraft of Indian Navy, viz HT-2, HPT-32, Kirans, Islander, Super Connie, Fokker F-27 and IL-38. He's been commended by Director General Coast Guard (1986) and FOCINC (South) (1992) for flying proficiency.
He is the Hon Secy of NFMC, a Master of Ceremonies and an avid blogger. http://rajdutta26.blogspot.com/
