Monday, August 10, 2020

Pilots Told About Weather, Tailwinds: Aviation Watchdog On Kerala Crash

New Delhi: The pilots of the aircraft that crashed while landing in Kerala's Calicut International Airport on Friday, were alerted about the bad weather in the area. They were also told about the tailwinds, which, however, were "within permissible limits", Arun Kumar, the Director General of Civil Aviation, told NDTV today.
The flight, trying to land on one of a handful of tabletop runways, had touched down too far ahead at full speed and running to the edge of the runway, had toppled over and landed in the valley. There is speculation on whether the bad weather on the day was responsible for the crash.
"The ATC had briefed the pilots about the weather condition... the call has to be taken by the commander to go around or to land," Mr Kumar told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

Asked if the pilot was alerted about that he had landed too far down the air strip, Mr Kumar said the ATC had alerted the aircraft rescue team and the firefighters and they responded immediately, rushing in a vehicle.
Asked if the Air Traffic Control and the aircraft were in touch after the aircraft had gone down the gorge, he said it would be known after the investigation.

The Air India Express aircraft had landed more than 1 kilometre down the length of the runway in windy and rainy conditions. Sources in the DGCA have confirmed that this was a key factor that they are looking into before reaching a conclusion on whether the remaining length of the runway was sufficient for the aircraft to have stopped safely.
What is clear is that the runway surface was wet, a factor that would have impacted the braking performance of the aircraft after it touched down.

Both pilots and 18 passengers died when the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft had crashed. 184 passengers - 174 adults and 10 children - were on board at the time of accident. Four children were among those who died.

The flight was operating under the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown.

A team from Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft will be in India next week to help in the investigations and will visit the crash site as well.
10/08/20 Vishnu Som/NDTV
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

0 comments:

Post a Comment