This past Wednesday (09/05), the co-pilot of Varig Flight 254, Nilson de Souza Zille, who crashed on the route from Marabá to Belém, both cities in Pará, held a lecture for students of an aviation course civilian in Brasilia.
During the Lecture, the co-pilot went through some obscure issues about Flight 254, and reported details that he calls the “ignorance and arrogance” of the flight commander, resulting in the death of 12 passengers and 42 injuries.
According to Zille, there was an error by the commander during the flight, when they declared themselves lost to air traffic control, the co-pilot pointed out to the commander that on seven previous occasions the pilots made a mistake due to the flight plan, but the pilots recognized the problem and proceeded to Marabá, then to Belém.
“He sent information to the control of Belém saying that he had a cartographic disorientation. When I looked, I saw that there was no breakdown in the instruments. He had just completed 1 year with Varig. I was afraid.", said Zille, co-pilot of Flight 254.
After an investigation, which was led by the aeronautics, an error in the flight plan indicated the magnetic heading direction “270” in the compass, instead of “027”, the error was caused by the way that Varig described the compass coordinates at the time, with a “0.”, writing the number 027 as 0.270, leading to the pilots understanding that the three digits made 270.
After an hour of flight, the captain was unable to find Belém, and contacted the air traffic control to confirm the information, at the time the radar coverage was not optimized as it is today, and the controllers were unable to guide the aircraft based on their position, and they didn't even question the detour during the route.
The commander could return to Maraba, as the aircraft left with more than three hours of flight autonomy, while it had only flown for about an hour. The return was suggested by the co-pilot, but the captain decided to continue looking for Belém, assuming that there was an instrument error, even with the co-pilot denying it.
The accident made Varig change the way it made its flight plans, and also required the FAB to increase radar coverage in the northern region.
For co-pilot Nilson de Souza Zille, the lecture in Brasilia was important to guide new pilots on recognizing their own error, or an error caused by third parties that could end in an accident.
“I will be at the head of aspiring commanders. Someday, they will sit at the left of a booth, with the power of decision. It is important that they can see that when someone accepts the mistake, it can reverse a situation.”, he said.
Via - g1.com
