Close shave for Alliance Air jet, twice in a day

Mumbai: Twice on Saturday, and in a span of less than seven hours, an Alliance Air Boeing 737-2A8 was called back to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport due to a “technical snag”. While Alliance Air, a fully owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, did not confirm the nature of the snag, Newsline has learnt that on both occasions the fault was the same— air speed indicator failure, meaning the pilot doesn’t know what speed the aircraft is flying at.In aviation parlance, this is a “no-go snag”, which means the aircraft cannot proceed and must land immediately.
In the first instance, the aircraft had a rejected take-off around 8:40 am.
Strangely, the same aircraft was later scheduled for a flight (CD 7179) to Mangalore. This time, it took off at 2:52 pm. “However, within minutes of being airborne, there was an air speed indicator failure on the commander’s panel. The plane then made a precautionary landing around 3:30 pm,” said an airline source.
The aircraft has been grounded for repairs.
11/11/06 Lekha Agarwal/Mumbai Newsline

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