A sudden burst of gusty crosswinds pushed a taxiing Indigo aircraft (6E-125) which hit the runway edge lights and veered off the runway, before its tyres burst on Thursday night, aviation experts said. The gusty winds are a brief phenomenon but capable of sending even bigger aircraft off-course, they added.
The accident happened at 8.10pm and resulted in authorities closing the runway for nearly two hours.
Devesh Agarwal of BangaloreAviation.com told TOI that Bangalore sometimes does experience extreme wind conditions during thunderstorms and they are sometimes even stronger at outlying BIA. Such gusty winds occur very rapidly, and sometimes catch landing pilots off-guard at the very last minute.
Agarwal recalled a similar incident in April 2009, involving an identical Airbus A320 model 232 of Kingfisher Airlines, landing on the same runway, around the same time, in heavy rain and winds. The aircraft veered off the runway, damaging 10 to 12 runway lights. At that time, the wind speed was recorded at 52 kmph.
14/09/13 Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The accident happened at 8.10pm and resulted in authorities closing the runway for nearly two hours.
Devesh Agarwal of BangaloreAviation.com told TOI that Bangalore sometimes does experience extreme wind conditions during thunderstorms and they are sometimes even stronger at outlying BIA. Such gusty winds occur very rapidly, and sometimes catch landing pilots off-guard at the very last minute.
Agarwal recalled a similar incident in April 2009, involving an identical Airbus A320 model 232 of Kingfisher Airlines, landing on the same runway, around the same time, in heavy rain and winds. The aircraft veered off the runway, damaging 10 to 12 runway lights. At that time, the wind speed was recorded at 52 kmph.
14/09/13 Times of India
