DGCA grounds 12 pilots over landing issues

NEW DELHI: Cracking the whip on recent post-landing incidents like overshooting runways and tail strikes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday grounded 12 pilots who were operating the six flights that have experienced these close calls since last Sunday (June 30). The regulator has also started issuing show cause notices to these pilots and has initiated probes into the mishaps whose repercussions are still being felt.

"The probes are on and we are going to take strict action if it is established that the incidents happened due to crew error or incorrect landing. We are looking at the incidents in totality to see if any other factor/s led or contributed to their occurrence. The idea is to avoid a repeat of such things," said a senior official. The regulator has started issuing show cause notices to the 12 pilots from Wednesday and will give each of them 15 days to respond.

Initial probe into the most serious of these incidents, SpiceJet's Boeing 737 overshooting the runway in Mumbai on Monday night, suggests this happened due to unstabilised aircraft approach. "Initial probe prima facie shows the aircraft touched down at high speed bout 1,600 metres ahead of the threshold of runway 27 and overran the runway. The aircraft's nose wheel and landing gear collapsed," say sources.

The SpiceJet Boeing 737 that overshot the main runway of Mumbai airport on landing on Monday night is still stuck there and has severely hampered flight handling capacity of the anyway constrained aerial connectivity of the mega city. Air India is working overtime to remove the SpiceJet aircraft.

The other five incidents are: Sunday saw two flights overshooting runways on landing - SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 in Surat (1); AI Express Boeing 737 in Mangalore (2) - and a GoAir Airbus A320 suffering a tail strike in Ranchi (3). AI Express Boeing 737 suffering a tail strike after a bouncy landing in Calicut (4). And on Tuesday, a SpiceJet B737 veering off the wet runway in Kolkata on landing and breaking four runway lights (5). Luckily no one on board these six aircraft was injured.

Senior pilots, however, say the probes into the incidents must look at the conditions at airports too, apart from crew action. "Like our cities, drainage at many of our airports' operational areas is also very bad. Rubber deposits at touch down points are not removed at required intervals. Instead at many places we are told 'slippery when wet'. Runway lighting at many airports is not upto the mark," said two senior training captains.

Another senior instructor-examiner pilot said: "The runway surface at some of our airports is not upto the mark. Puddles get formed there in rain. So being told there is 1 mm, 2 mm or 3 mm of water on runway does not reflect the actual situation as the water level is different in different parts of the same runway."