Gulf Air's new chief executive James Hogan has responded to a damning report on its 23 August, 2000 Airbus A320 crash by claiming most of the system improvements needed to reduce the risk of a repetition are already in place. The A320 dived into the sea during a night go-around at Bahrain Airport.
The report confirms earlier releases by Bahrain's Department of Civil Aviation Affairs, indicating that the aircraft made its first approach to runway 12 too fast and carried out a low visual orbit just short of the runway to lose height and speed. When it failed to do either, the aircraft carried out a go-around and climbed left, cleared by air traffic control to climb to 2,000ft (610m) to fly downwind to position for another approach.
Instead, from about 1,000ft the aircraft entered a descending left turn and hit the water at about 270kt (500km/h).
There is very little that the report does not criticise. Because the reason for the final dive was deemed to be approach mismanagement followed by aircrew disorientation, all aspects of crew training are slammed, from inadequate crew resource management (CRM) training to lack of familiarisation with the problems leading to crew spatial orientation. Hogan says that the improved training programme corrects these points, but adds that Gulf Air now has a flight-data analysis system which will enable the carrier to monitor operational standards in line flying.
The safety oversight authority for the states that own Gulf Air was also criticised for its slackness in monitoring standards at the carrier.
Source: Flight International
