Thu, Mar 26, 2009
Crew Failed To Follow Emergency Procedures; Crash Killed
16
A pilot who
prosecutors say opted to pray when confronted with an inflight
emergency, instead of attempting to remedy the problem, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison this week for his role in a 2005 crash that claimed the lives of 16
people.
The Associated Press reports prosecutors found Chefik Gharbi and
his co-pilot, Ali Kebaier Lassoued, of manslaughter in connection
to the August 6, 2005 downing of an ATR-72 turboprop airliner off
the coast of Sicily. The ANSA news agency reports data obtained
from the cockpit voice recorder showed Gharbi panicked when the
airliner's engines spooled down due to fuel starvation, told the
co-pilot he was in command and then began to pray.
Italian investigators say the primary cause of the accident was
an improperly installed fuel gauge, made for the smaller ATR 42
model, that did not show the fuel tanks to be nearly empty as the
plane departed the Adriatic port of Bari bound for the Tunisian
resort of Djerba. When the aircraft's left engine failed, the crew
attempted to set up for an emergency landing at Palermo... but the
second engine failed before the aircraft could make landfall.
Both pilots were sentenced for the crime, because prosecutors
determined the men failed to implement proper ditching procedures
before the aircraft impacted the choppy waters of the
Mediterranean. Gharbi was initially hailed for his role in helping
save 21 passengers.
Palermo Judge Vittorio Anania also sentenced five other people
-- including executives with Tunisair charter subsidiary Tuninter,
now known as Sevenair -- for unspecified roles in the accident. Two
others were acquitted, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere
della Sera.
Gharbi's defense lawyer, Francesca Coppi, said her client "is
convinced that he did all he could to save as many lives as
possible... Faced with danger, he evoked his God just like anyone
of us would do."
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