'Don't haul up pilots for hard landings^

Mumbai: After two years of doing approaches and landings with the fear of getting hauled up by the airline for doing a hard touchdown, Air India and Air India Express pilots can finally breathe easy as far as hard landings are concerned.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday sent a letter to CEOs of airline and aircraft charter companies instructing them not to haul up pilots for doing hard landings that are within the aircraft manufacturer's permissible limits. The Times of India had reported how Air India hauled up its pilots (those from Air India and Air India Express) for doing hard landings that were well within the manufacturer's limits.
In fact, in March, Capt Zlatco Glusica, the commander of the Boeing 737 which crashed while landing at Mangalore was hauled up for doing a 1.7g landing (vertical acceleration due to gravity on touchdown was 1.75 X weight of aircraft) in Thiruvananthapuram. A B737 can take up to 2.1g landing according to the aircraft manufacturer. The TOI report also pointed out that AI and AIE pilots have second thoughts when it comes to doing a go-around as many pilots have been questioned in the past by the airline's flight safety department.
"Pilots need to be made aware that achieving a particular 'G' value on touchdown is no measure of a good landing. Landings should be judged not by how soft the landing has been, but if it has been made at the correct speed and touchdown zone on the runway," said the letter issued by Capt H Y Samant, chief flight operations inspector, flight standards division, DGCA.'
03/06/10 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Jun 2010