As a US Bangla plane approaches runway 20
at Kathmandu airport, alarms shriek in the cockpit—"Too Low. Pull Up!" The weather is
unforgiving—thick fog surrounds Kathmandu, and visibility is poor. The runway appears at the
very last moment, but the aircraft is not aligned, they are descending too fast, and they are
perilously close to the ground. The captain desperately tries to correct the course, but the
plane suddenly veers off track. Within seconds, the plane flies dangerously over the domestic
terminal, hurtling towards the ATC tower just 100 meters away. Inside, eight controllers freeze in
terror, while 71 passengers onboard the plane and hundreds in the terminal remain blissfully unaware
of the catastrophe closing in. Disaster seems inevitable… What went wrong? Let's find out…
This is the story of US Bangla Flight 211
DHAKA, Bangladesh.
First Officer Prithula Rashid is the first female pilot of US Bangla Airlines. She’s just
25, and she has already amassed 390 flight hours of experience. And today she’s going to add a new
feather to her cap. She’s about to fly the tricky approach into Kathmandu for the first time.
The Kathmandu Airport in Nepal is a notoriously challenging place to land as it is situated
in a narrow bowl-shaped valley. Pilots have to navigate past the tall Himalayan mountains and
they require special training to land there.
To provide her with that training, she is
accompanied by 52 year old Captain Abid Sultan. He’s a former Bangladesh Air Force pilot with
over 22 years of flying experience. He is also an instructor for the airline. And with more
than 100 flights to Kathmandu under his belt, he is well-acquainted with the route.
There are 67 passengers on board US Bangla 211, most of them Nepali and Bangladeshi.
While the two pilots await taxi clearance, the two cabin crew members complete the
passenger safety briefing. This plane, though, is going to be anything but safe.
First officer Rashid looks excited. It’s a big day for her - she’s been looking forward
to the challenging landing. But to her left, things aren’t looking too good.
She notices that Captain Sultan is not looking well. He looks very agitated and he is stressed
and short tempered. He’s cursing under his breath. And when the operations staff talk to him on
radio, even they aren’t spared by the captain.
CAPTAIN: I don’t want two one two, I want
two one one(Very angry) … I don’t want to read you again? Keep your mouth shut.
But interestingly, as soon as he turns his attention towards the female first officer,
his demeanor completely changes. He turns calm and compassionate.
CAPTAIN: Don’t be scared, I am going to stay for another 3 months, I am
going to show these people right and left.
Just as he finishes saying these words
to the first officer, the ATC clears the plane for taxiing. The plane pushes back, and
taxies to the runway. They then depart Dhaka, headed for the Himalayan country.
The weather on route and at the destination is going to be marginal. It’s
overcast with some thunderstorms in the area and visibility isn’t great.
During the climb phase, the captain overhears a communication between Operations
and another US-Bangla aircraft regarding their fuel onboard. But even without verifying if
the message was meant for him, Captain Sultan replies angrily at the Operations staff,
Captain: Operations, Bangla Star Two One One.
Ops: Bangla Star 211, Operations. Go Ahead.
Captain: (Angry) Why the hell do you need to know the Onboard fuel? Why do you ask me for the
onboard fuel? YOU NEED TO TELL ME NOW. I WANT a written explanation before I come to Dhaka.
Ops: Copied Sir. Wilco. Have a safe flight sir.
Captain: (Very Angry) I don’t CARE
about a safe flight. You just do your duty. Don’t talk to me unless I call you.
The Captain’s behaviour is not just abnormal, but it is also a severe violation of
the Sterile Cockpit Rule which forbids the pilots from engaging in non essential
conversation during the critical takeoff and landing phases of the flight.
Captain: Even if I am abusing others, you don’t be afraid Buri. See, I am calling
you Buri to show my love for you.
The copilot sees a big red flag but unfortunately
she choses not to speak up due to his seniority. She realises that this short one-hour
flight was going to feel much longer.
15 minutes pass. The weather outside
the plane starts turning cloudy. The weather inside the cockpit,
turns thunderous. Out of the blue, he goes off on a rant about another
young female pilot, Farhat Lamia Khaled, whom he had previously trained at the airline.
He angrily curses Lamia for filing a complaint against him questioning his competency.
Captain: Lamia was the worst trained in US-Bangla . She said we made out in
the cockpit. She is not even worth approaching - she is ugly and she is fat.
There are rumours within the company that the Captain was involved with Lamia, and Lamia had
filed a complaint against him. He breaks down and starts weeping openly, telling
the first officer that he is quitting the company because of Lamia.
Captain: I don’t need Lamia. What does SHE know about flying. If I wanted to
be with her, I can easily do that anytime. She is not innocent.. your friend Lamia.
But because of HER, I had to resign.
The first officer is too stunned to know how
to react. She chooses to remain silent, hoping and praying that they reach Kathmandu soon.
Then, something bizzare happens. The captain lights a cigarette inside the cockpit and
begins smoking. A blatant disregard for every safety convention and common sense.
Captain Abid Sultan has 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 then he
had himself re-evaluated by another psychiatrist, 9 years later, and this psychiatrist declared
him fit for flying. Based on that evaluation, he joined US-Bangla in 2015.
Many pilots refuse to seek treatment for mental health issues because they fear
that their medical assessment will have a negative impact on their career. And they
try to manage their mental health themselves, without seeking proper attention and treatment.
And we’ve seen this before in other cases, like Pakistan 8303 and Germanwings 9525.
Now, one hour has passed and the flight has nearly reached Kathmandu. The passengers and the cabin
crew remain blissfully unaware of the turmoil inside the cockpit. They have enjoyed a relatively
peaceful flight thus far. But things are not going to remain peaceful for too long...
Inside the cockpit, Captain Sultan is still angry, and he’s still crying…
FO Rashid tries hard to get the Captain back to his senses.
But this is the point that marks the beginning of a troubling turn of events.
For the descent and approach into Kathmandu, Captain Sultan was going to be pilot flying, and
the first officer was pilot monitoring. He needs to complete the approach briefing, but he doesn’t
have the approach charts with him. He’s just not adequately prepared for flight operations at this
time. He asks the first officer for her charts, which she hands over. He then briefs their arrival
into Kathmandu while referring to her charts.
I need you to remember that the approach
into Kathmandu is extremely challenging even for experienced pilots who are completely
focused. This cockpit is anything but..
The Captain does not carry out a complete briefing
of the Runway 02 approach. Given that he has performed this approach multiple times before,
complacency seeps in. And important steps are missed. Also, remember that the First Officer
was operating this route for the first time, so she’s unable to pick up on any issues, and even
if she does, she’s not challenging the captain.
He hands over the charts back to the first
officer, and he instructs her to clip the charts to her side console. This means that he would
have no access to the charts while performing the approach into the airport. The chart
contains critical information for the approach, like the minimum height at which they need to
fly, which direction they should be flying in, and where the mountains that they need
to stay clear of, are. Without this, he's essentially flying blind, trusting his
memory of how the approach should be flown.
To make matters worse, FO Rashid makes several
incorrect statements which indicates that she has a poor understanding of the procedures to
follow during approach, but her confusion is not resolved by the Pilot in Command.
And in this state, the crew attempt to begin their approach towards the runway.
A few minutes after that, the plane is handed off to Kathmandu approach who instructs
the aircraft to descend to 13500 feet and to hold over this waypoint called “GURAS”.
Based on their current position and speed, the aircraft will arrive at GURAS 6 minutes earlier
than originally planned. Kathmandu is usually a very crowded airspace, and so the pilots fully
expect to be asked to do this holding pattern.
And in preparation for this, the FO inserts
this HOLDing pattern into the computer.
If you zoom out a bit, there’s another plane
called, BUDDHA 282 that is following this plane. Just keep this in mind, because this second
plane will soon play a part in this story.
Kathmandu Approach then calls up and
instructs US Bangla 211 to reduce their speed and to descend to 12500ft.
However, before the aircraft arrives at the holding point, the approach controller
clears the flight to further descend and to begin approaching runway 02 directly.
They are not asked to perform the HOLD.
The pilots acknowledged this transmission
from the ATC, but they crucially forgot to remove the HOLD that was programmed into the
computer. Does this remind you of another story that you might have seen on this channel???
The captain then turns the seat belt sign on and tells the cabin crew to prepare for landing.
Captain Sultan lights up another cigarette. The aircraft is just 3 minutes away from the “GURAS”
waypoint. Now, holding his cigarette in one hand, and trying to control the plane with the
other, the captain struggles and he drops his cigarette on the cockpit floor. He
asks FO Rashid to search for it.
Captain: "Oh No, I’ve dropped the cigarette.
Where did it go? Oh it’s there on the left, pick it up. It might catch fire."
From the cabin, the flight attendant informs the pilots that the cabin is secured. The
ATC clears the plane to continue their approach. And all these transmissions happen within a few
seconds of each other. The pilots mental state, and these concurrent transmissions become a
trigger for distraction and confusion.
The plane crosses GURAS, and the aircraft begins
to turn left automatically without any pilot inputs. The aircraft is now starting to follow the
HOLD pattern that was programmed into the FMS.
The ATC immediately notices that the plane was
turning left and warns the crew. The captain, hurriedly, sets the plane on Heading mode
and turns the plane to 027 degrees to set it back to the correct final approach path.
A quick lesson.. This plane is now following what’s called a VOR approach. VOR stands for Very
High Frequency Omnidirectional Range approach. What this means is A very high frequency radio
wave is transmitted in all directions from a radio station on the ground… In Kathmandu, that station
is located here, right near the runway.
Let’s add a clockface to this VOR..
So, this is 0 degrees, and this is 180 degrees here at the bottom. If the plane
was approaching the runway from GURAS normally, the plane would be flying at a heading of
around 22 degrees to follow this outbound radial. But because the plane made the unplanned
turn, the captain has set the plane to approach at 27 degrees, with the intention that once the
plane reaches this point on the actual route, he’ll turn the plane to 22 degrees and
follow the approach down to the runway.
The problem is that when heading mode is
selected, the auto pilot ignores he left and right navigation programmed into the computer. So
the captain needs to manually perform the turn.
Also remember that the weather is overcast and
visual contact with the ground isn’t great.
To add to the problems, there’s also a strong
cross-wind coming from the left hand side pushing the plane further to the right. Usually
when the plane is being flown by auto-pilot the cross-wind is automatically accounted for and
corrected by the computer.. but unfortunately, these pilots are flying manually and
aren’t correcting for this cross-wind.
The plane then arrives at the point where
it now returns to the original flight path, and the pilots should have turned the plane to
22 degrees. But the pilots completely forget to do this, and the plane continues to fly at 27
degrees. The westerly cross wind further continues to push the plane away from the airport.
And to make matters worse, the pilots don’t review the landing checklist properly. The
captain instructs the first officer to complete the before landing checklist.
And as part of the checklist, the first officer instructs the
captain to lower the landing gear.
Captain Sultan in gross negligence
informs FO Rashid that the landing gears were down by stating
🧑✈️ *Gears Down. Three Green.*
But, the Landing gear, was in fact, Not down. The captain said “Gear down” without checking
to actually confirm that it is down.
Just at that moment, as the plane
keeps descending towards the ground, the landing gear unsafe alarm starts to go off…
👱♀️ *Sir, landing gear is not yet set.. Sir, Speed Speed Speed…*
Bizarrely, the captain asks the first officer to ignore the warning.
🧑✈️ *(Non chalantly) No worry, No worry…*
Meanwhile, with the heading set to 027 degrees,
and with the winds pushing the plane to the right, the plane starts drifting to the east of
the airport. And in the overcast conditions, there’s no visual reference for the pilots either.
They are completely clueless that their plane has now drifted off-course.
## KATHMANDU
The plane is now almost alongside the
airport, and heading further away. From the ATC’s perspective it looks like the plane
is flying over the airport to try to land from the other side. The ATC calls up the plane.
📡 *BS211, you were cleared for Runway 02 ….*
📡 *…. but you are going towards runway 20.*
Assuming that the crew want to land on Runway 20, the ATC now clears them to land on 20.
The crew, completely lost, and expecting to see the runway in front of them, are confused by the
clearance, and they continue to fly straight.
The captain confirms that he intends to land on
Runway 02. So, the ATC asks the plane to make a U-Turn, and to join what’s called the downwind leg
to prepare for a landing on runway 02. Remember, the pilots still think that they are here and
are expecting the runway in front of them, but because the ATC has asked them to do a U turn,
the captain begins turning the plane right.
And as the aircraft descends to around 175
feet above ground level, a Ground Proximity Warning Alarm goes off. After hearing the TOO
LOW GEARS warning, the First Officer finally does a thorough scan and notices that
the landing gear was not actually down, although the captain had initially said that it
WAS down, and she initiates its extension.
Recall the BUDDHA 282 plane that was following
them? That plane is now on final approach towards the runway. The ATC orders the US Bangla plane
to keep clear of the Buddha Airlines plane, and also to vacate the area where they are
currently in, because if BUDDHA282 fails to land and needs to go-around, the go-around
procedure will take that plane exactly where the US Bangla plane is right now.
However, the confused captain of the US Bangla plane, instead of just doing a
U-turn continues turning right, putting his plane and BUDHA282 in danger.
This move sends alarm bells ringing across the ATC control room. The captain’s
actions could potentially put the two aircrafts on direct collision course.
The ATC controller scrambles to instruct Captain Sultan to remain clear of runway 20.
But the plane continues to turn right and remains in the path of the Buddha airlines go-around
route… But thankfully, the Buddha Air plane lands safely and doesn’t need to go around…
One danger - averted.
But for Captain Sultan and US BANGLA, the
main problem still remains. They are still not on the correct path to land and they
have no clue where they are. And Neither pilot has visually sighted the runway. But
the captain has finally understood that they aren’t where they thought they were at.
> **🧑✈️ ***(Feeling guilty) So I have done mistake, it happens isn’t it? (trying to shift
blame to the First officer) It can happen since I was talking to you! Where is our VOR, gone left
isn’t it? So let me make a turn 15 degrees and come back to final.*
>
With no other planes approaching the airport,
the tower clears BS211 to land on any runway.
And By this time the plane has flown over the
airport and is now on the western side. The captain again continues to turn his plane
to the right. During the turn, the bank angles reach up to 45 degrees with descent
rates over 2000 feet per minute triggering the EGPWS warnings one more time.
But even after all this, the pilots still aren’t able to locate the runway.
> 📡 *BS211, Confirm you have runway in sight?*
>
> **🧑✈️ ***Negative Sir… Where is the runway?*
>
> 📡 *BS211, turn right. and uh… you have runway… confirm you have the runway not in sight yet?*
>
The phrasing by the ATC is poor.. You should
never ask to confirm a negative.. But that’s the least of our worries right now.
As the plane continues to turn, the plane comes to the vicinity of
Runway 20. At this point the FO finally manages to visually locate the runway.
> 👱♀️ *Sir runway. runway. Sir 3 o clock.*
>
But this relief is short-lived. Because, in their haste, they make another mistake.
From their current location, they are in no position to land on the runway. They need to be
vectored in back around this route, to attempt a safe landing. However, Captain Sultan, eager
to put this embarrassing episode behind him, makes a desperate attempt to land the plane at the
closer runway 20, and not on runway 02 that he has been cleared for. In a rush, he is determined to
get the aircraft on the ground at any cost.
Captain Sultan makes a sharp and abrupt right
turn back to the west in an attempt to return to the approach end of the runway.
The plane dives at a steep angle towards the runway. The plane hurtles towards the ground
at a very high speed. The ATC is stunned at this turn of events. They had never imagined that
the pilots would attempt to land the plane from there. The plane approached very close
to the threshold of runway 20. Spotting the aircraft maneuvering at very close proximity
to the ground and not aligned with the runway, the Tower Controller hurriedly cancels the
landing clearance of the aircraft by saying, incorrectly, "Takeoff clearance cancelled".
Hearing the cancelled clearance, the captain pulls the plane up with a very high bank angle,
turns left, and flies the plane over the parked aircraft on the domestic terminal.
Suddenly, there’s a more immediate danger, and both the captain and the FO realize this
simultaneously. In all their erratic direction changes, the plane is now headed straight
for the ATC tower. As the aircraft barrels towards the control tower, the situation is
turning into a potential catastrophe.
All the operators inside the tower jump from
their seats and duck for cover. The captain struggles and puts the plane into a steep climb
and just barely manages to miss the tower…
The captain is now stressed out
and not thinking straight.
After missing the control tower, the plane
now flies over the taxiway, aiming to make one last attempt to land on the runway.
The aircraft finally touches down with only its right landing gear hitting the runway
almost 1.7kms from the start of the runway, at a bank angle of almost 15 degrees. This
causes the plane to skid off course and veer off the runway. The plane then bounced
on the unpaved part of the airport, and then crashed through the airport's
perimeter. It came to a halt in a nearby field. Within six seconds, a fire erupted.
Both pilots, the two cabin crew members, and 47 passengers unfortunately perished in
the accident. Only the passengers seated on the right side of the plane or those
in the front managed to survive.