Emperor Ashoka (registration: VT-EBD), the first-ever Boeing 747 delivered to the national airline of India, Air India Ltd, was involved in what was known and is amongst the deadliest aviation accident in India after the Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision in 1996 and the bombing of Air India flight 182.
Consisting of 213 passengers including 23 crews, Flight 855 crashed during the New Years' eve of 1978, off the coast of Bandra, near the Santacruz Airport (currently operating as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport).
Commanding the flight 855, was the 51-year-old Captain Madan Lal Kukar, having close to 18,000 flight hours. On the left-hand seat, the first officer having more than 4,500 flight hours, Indu Virmani, and the 53-Year-old Alfredo Faria, with about 11,000 flight hours.
Like many of the Air India jumbo jets, VT-EBD was named after the Mauryan ruler Emperor Ashoka, was infamously advertised as the "Palace in the Sky" due to the exotic and luxurious cabins, featuring the upper decked first-class Maharaja lounges, cocktail bars, and the embellished window panels of the Emperor fleet of the Air India's Boeing 747.
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| Emperor Shahjehan, One of the Emperor Boeing 747 fleet of Air India (Photos courtesy of Debasish Chakraverty) |
It was the age of golden travel, but 7 years after its induction in the Air India fleet and flying around the world, this routinely scheduled flight, Emperor Ashoka was no more than wreckage.
So what went wrong and what led to this disaster?
With its destination being Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Air India flight 855 departed from Bombay's Santacruz Airport at 7:55 pm. Just minutes after taking off, Captain Kukar made a scheduled right thereupon crossing the coastline of Bombay.
Captain : "What's happened here, my instruments ..."
On returning to the normal level position after the brief right-hand turn, Captain Kukar noticed his Attitude indicator (AI), a flight instrument that informs the pilot of the aircraft's orientation relative to Earth's horizon, still showing the flight 855 right banked. Taking this into account, First officer Virmani's Indicator, which likely worked, showed flight 855 as left banked.
First Officer : "Mine has also toppled, looks fine."
With no means of cross-checking the Altitude Indicators over a dark Arabian sea, the Captian mistakenly believed both the AI to be true and right banked, making it worse, in turn added the additional left bank and the left rudder to the already left-banked aircraft, thereby rolling 108deg and rapidly losing altitude. Although the Boeing 747 had a third backup AI in the center of the Instrument panel, however, it was already too later before the Captain could make any corrections.
5 seconds before the impact, we could hear Flight engineer Faria in the CVR recording trying to get the captain's attention, but it was too late.
Flight Engineer : "Don't go by that one, don't go by that one..."
Exactly 101 seconds after leaving Bombay, Air India flight 855 struck the dark Arabian Sea at a 35deg nose-down angle, All the 213 souls on board perished on the impact.
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| On 1971, Air India purchased Emperor Ashoka. (Photos courtesy of Debasish Chakraverty / Capt. D.M. Chakraverty's private collection) |
Upon partial recovery of the wreckage and the CVR recording, the investigator's concluded the probable cause to be " due to the captain's illogical control inputs as a result of his AI malfunctioning and him being completely oblivious of the attitude. Based on the other flight instruments, the crew was unable to gain control. "
Soon after the disaster, a suit was filed against the Boeing Company and the manufacture of the Altitude Indicator, Collins Radio Division.
Boeing's Attorneys blamed the fault on the Captain of Flight 855, " who was illegally filing under the influence of a diabetic drug, a condition due to his alcohol intake and diet for the past 24 hours " and not the Attitude Indicator (AI) malfunctions, the suit, however, was rejected by the US Federal District Judge and dismissed in 1986.
Despite the fact that Air India paid reparations to the families of those killed in the Air India 855 crash, there is as of 2021, no memorial to the incident.
The Malaysian Airlines flight MH653 and the Swiss Air flight 111, like many other air tragedies around the world, have memorial plaques near the crash site to honor the friends and family who lost their lives.
Regardless of the fact that it has been 43 years since the tragedy, there is still a glimmer of optimism that the government would take the initiative to raise awareness about it in the future.
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