New Delhi: A day after the IndiGo fire scare at IGI airport, a Delhi-bound flight of Air India had a way bigger scare when seconds after take off from Kochi on Thursday night there was a warning of an engine fire!
The flight, AI 047, took off from Kochi on the 1989-era Airbus A-320 (VT-ESI). Barely 10 seconds after getting airborne, the cockpit was abuzz with a loud fire warning in the engine.
Captain Tejinder Singh immediately shut down the engine and cut off fuel supply to it. Only one engine was running then but the plane still had to climb first to be able to align to make an approach for landing into Kochi.
The plane had taken off with a full load of 180 passengers and had fuel for the entire Kochi-Delhi flight — one of the longest domestic flights in India. It had taken off at maximum take off weight of over 70 tonnes.
The maximum landing weight of this plane is 64.5 tonnes. What made matters worse was that Kochi had bad weather at that time with thundery monsoon clouds covering the sky and strong winds blowing.
However with a serious engine fire warning alarm, there was no time to jettison fuel. Captain Singh made one of the most difficult landings that any pilot can expect to make in his or her career.
"He climbed to about 3,000 feet and then returned to Kochi. The plane landed safely and he took it right to the terminal. All the passengers evacuated the aircraft completely unhurt using the normal step ladder instead of through emergency chutes that were used in Delhi a day earlier which had left many flyers injured," said sources.
22/08/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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The flight, AI 047, took off from Kochi on the 1989-era Airbus A-320 (VT-ESI). Barely 10 seconds after getting airborne, the cockpit was abuzz with a loud fire warning in the engine.
Captain Tejinder Singh immediately shut down the engine and cut off fuel supply to it. Only one engine was running then but the plane still had to climb first to be able to align to make an approach for landing into Kochi.
The plane had taken off with a full load of 180 passengers and had fuel for the entire Kochi-Delhi flight — one of the longest domestic flights in India. It had taken off at maximum take off weight of over 70 tonnes.
The maximum landing weight of this plane is 64.5 tonnes. What made matters worse was that Kochi had bad weather at that time with thundery monsoon clouds covering the sky and strong winds blowing.
However with a serious engine fire warning alarm, there was no time to jettison fuel. Captain Singh made one of the most difficult landings that any pilot can expect to make in his or her career.
"He climbed to about 3,000 feet and then returned to Kochi. The plane landed safely and he took it right to the terminal. All the passengers evacuated the aircraft completely unhurt using the normal step ladder instead of through emergency chutes that were used in Delhi a day earlier which had left many flyers injured," said sources.
22/08/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
