Mangalore crash: Praful Patel offers to quit, PM says no

Accepting “moral responsibility” for the air disaster, Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel offered his resignation to the prime minister Manmohan Singh after returning to Delhi Saturday evening from the air crash site in Mangalore. The PM declined to accept it, according to sources.

“The prime minister told him, ‘Don’t be overcome by the situation, but face it. Some things are beyond our control,’” said a source familiar with the development.

Patel himself refused to confirm or deny his offer to resign. At a news conference outside the PM’s residence at 8pm, he told the media, “I have expressed my anguish to the PM. I conveyed to him that I bear the moral responsibility for the tragedy. I feel responsible that such a sad and tragic accident took place.”

For the first time in the day, the minister also acknowledged that the Mangalore runway is a difficult one to operate flights on. “Yes, it’s a difficult runway. But then pilots do fly to such airports, they are fully briefed. Civil aviation does not function on chance. This airport is fully certified by the DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation).”

To a question on whether pilot error was a factor in the crash, Patel said this cannot be ascertained till the enquiry report has been submitted. “But all other factors were normal, and right up to four metres from touchdown, the landing was normal,” he said, unwilling to blame either the pilots, the airport or the aircraft.
Interestingly, Patel said that the survivors, who had a miraculous escape, were all in the middle seats - 7B, 17B, 23B and 28B. “The fire grew gradually, so some people were able to escape,” Patel said.

He said the co-pilot of the aircraft, SS Ahluwalia, had logged more than 3,300 hours of flying on aircraft of this kind. “He had a thorough knowledge of the local topography,” Patel said.