GOA: Air India is
probing a “hot brake” warning which its Kuwait-Goa flight got while cruising at 35,000 feet, where the temperature is way below freezing point. On getting this warning, the pilot descended 10,000 feet and flew at the lower altitude to reportedly cool the landing gear before ascending to the higher altitude.
This episode took place on the midnight of September 14-15 when the Airbus A-320 flying as AI 976 had completed over an hour of its 4.5-hourlong journey. After flying at the lower altitude for a few minutes, the flight resumed its higher altitude.
What pilots do in situations like this is bring the plane to lower altitude, lower the landing gear to let it cool down. After some time, the gear is retracted and the plane taken to higher altitude.
“The pilot reported this issue to the airline after landing. We are examining the issue, why it happened and could it have been handled differently. For that we are going to meet the pilot, who did nothing wrong and reported the matter on his own,” a senior AI official said.
Later routine monitoring of the flight’s data recorder confirmed what was reported by the pilot. Sources say it is possible that the warning may have been a false one. But pilots don’t take any chances.
Picture used for representational purpose only
