What happened
On October 29, 2008, a King Air C90, registration VT-EHY, was performing a flight from Chandigarh to Ludhiana when it crashed during a landing maneuver. The aircraft was engaged in a second attempt to land at Ludhiana Airport under conditions of low visibility. During the approach, the crew struggled to maintain visual contact with the runway, relying on GPS for positioning. After initially spotting the runway, they lost sight of it again and performed orbits to the east of runway 12 to re-establish visual contact.
Following these maneuvers, the crew initiated a non-standard go-around procedure. In an attempt to stay near the airfield, the crew descended through three orbits on the western side of the runway. During this phase, the cockpit became filled with smoke, leading to severe disorientation. The crew, facing a lack of specific experience on this aircraft type, experienced panic upon sighting a communication tower. This loss of control resulted in the aircraft impacting the ground in a steep left bank. The impact and subsequent fire destroyed the aircraft and caused the deaths of both occupants on board.
Findings
An investigation conducted under Rule 71 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, identified several contributing factors. The primary cause was the loss of control due to pilot panic and disorientation during a non-standard approach in low visibility. Specific contributing elements included:
- Presence of smoke within the cockpit
- Severe spatial disorientation of the crew
- Lack of specific qualification and experience on the aircraft type
- Execution of non-standard flight procedures during the go-around
- Low visibility conditions at the time of the accident