Said To Have Exhibited 'Bizarre Behavior' In Flight's Final Moments

The pilot of US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 which went down in the Himalayas last March displayed symptoms of an emotional breakdown, according to an official report.

The plane crash-landed on the runway at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal and skidded into a nearby field. All four crewmembers and 47 of the 67 passengers aboard the Bombardier Q400 were fatally injured.

In the report prepared by Nepal's Accident Investigation Commission and presented to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Aviation, the probable cause of the accident was found to be "disorientation and a complete loss of situational awareness in the part of crewmember." The report says that the pilot was reportedly engaged in lengthy one-way conversation with the first officer since the beginning of the flight and made multiple unnecessary statements and comments against another colleague in the company who had questioned his reputation as an instructor in the company" according to a story appearing in Newsweek.

"As this conversation regarding the above colleague was repeated several times during the flight, the captain definitely seemed very much emotionally disturbed and stressed," the report found. "At times the Captain even seemed to have emotional breakdown as revealed in the CVR," the report states.

Contributing to the accident were a preflight briefing conducted too long before departure, the pilot's "increased workload" which included communicating with ATC as well as flying the airplane, and a "lack of assertiveness on the part of Air Traffic controller" to correct the pilot's many issues during the approach.

The report found the pilot "seemed to be under stress due to behavior of a particular female colleague in the company and lack of sleep the preceding night. This stress might have led him to smoke in the cockpit during the flight and this clearly is against the Company Standard Operating procedure," the report later wrote. "This state of mind with high degree of stress and emotional state might have led him to all the procedural lapses."

The report also indicated that the pilot had a history of depression dating back to his service in the Bangladesh Air Force in 1993, leading to his removal from active duty after a psychiatric evaluation. He was later determined to be "fit to fly" after a re-evaluation in 2002, and did not show any evidence that the depression had returned between 2002 and 2018. "The company had no reason to evaluate about this issue of [the pilot-in-command] further medically," the report stated.

The pilot was described in the report as generally "soft spoken" and a person who "would not use foul language in conversation." But during the accident flight, the "foul language and abusive words he was using in conversation with a junior female [first officer] was very inappropriate and certainly not expected from a level headed person." He was "irritable, tensed, moody, and aggressive at various times."

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: Source report