Multiple anti-diabetic drugs being taken by the pilot in charge or PIC of Air India Express aircraft in Kerala may have contributed to its crash last August, according to a report into the aviation accident that killed 21 people. Both pilots were among the dead after the Air India Express Boeing 737 carrying 190 people from Dubai skidded off the Kozhikode airport’s tabletop runway amid heavy rainfall. “The PIC was taking multiple un-prescribed anti-diabetic drugs that could have probably caused subtle cognitive deficits due to mild hypoglycaemia,” NDTV quoted the final investigation report by Civil Aviation Ministry.

The 267-page report also mentions errors in “complex decision making as well as susceptibility to perceptual errors”, such as landing beyond the safe touchdown zone despite a go-around call, due to low visibility and “sub optimal performance of the PIC’s windshield wiper in rain.”

It added that the non-adherence to standard operating procedure was the “probable cause of the crash” as the pilot flying the aircraft “continued an unstabilised approach and landed beyond the touchdown zone, halfway down the runway, in spite of a go around call by the pilot monitoring.”

The Air India Express flight IX-1344 from Dubai to Calicut was operating under the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad because of coronavirus lockdowns. The Air India Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, has only Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet.

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The Kozhikode crash was the 52nd fatal commercial airliner accident in independent India, with the according to a Hindustan Times report that quoted data compiled by the Aviation Safety Network.

An overwhelming 80% of the 2,173 passengers killed up till the Kozhikode crash had died in “accidents caused by pilot error,” the report said.