Air India goes off runway...after fuel emergency

@DPApilot is Indian. Blame him.

VhPpJRJA9k2vkiimitvdx5P2o1_500.jpg
 
Another pic, this one taken shortly after the accident.
BdSJ6saCQAAiZ1F.jpg


And according to this link, the diversion and fuel emergency was due to the aircraft's intended destination fogging in, and the wing did strike the ground and not the cluster of trees off the side of the runway. Not sure what the alternate rules are in India, almost sounds like they were caught with their pants down when Delhi fogged in and didn't have any solid options.

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=163045

On a side note, 173 people on an A320?
 
When did they start putting 4 mains on an A320? The WX at the diversion looks crappy too. Id imagine with a fuel emergency and an INOP ILS, that whole situation sucked.
 
India is amazing.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Miracle-in-Jaipur/articleshow/28485775.cms

On inspection, ground officials found that the aircraft had run out of fuel, which turned out to be blessing in disguise. Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials said since the aircraft had been airborne for over 5 hours, it had run out of fuel by the time of landing, preventing it from exploding on impact.
"While Captain Vats's manoeuvre helped save 173 lives, officials said the damage suffered by the plane - its landing gear and tyres were wrecked and half of its left wing was ripped off - meant that it will never fly again. The plane, commissioned in 1991, was Air India's oldest serving aircraft. DGCA has ordered an investigation and has derostered Captain Vats till the probe is over."

"Prima facie, we have concluded that the aircraft landed almost into a nearby drain, damaging the wheel in the process," said a DGCA official. "The aircraft also hit some object which ripped off the wings making it unserviceable. The aircraft will have to be written off."
Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee member Capt Mohan Ranganathan said several factors may have contributed to the accident.

"There is fatigue, stress due to zero visibility and the knowledge of being low on fuel," said Ranganathan. "Under these conditions, the heart rate of the pilot would have been extremely high and the body would have experienced sugar depletion, resulting in momentary disorientation."
 
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When did they start putting 4 mains on an A320? The WX at the diversion looks crappy too. Id imagine with a fuel emergency and an INOP ILS, that whole situation sucked.
IA ordered them configured with 4 mains. I don't know of another carrier who did this either. I can only assume this was done due to some of the dodgy pavements there. Spreads the weight.
 
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Woah.


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It was converted to standard gear soon afterwards.
AB must have produced a few more then, besides the ones ordered by IA. Never knew that. Are you aware of any carrier flying them in the 4 configuration or were they sold and all converted over to 2 after sale?
 
AB must have produced a few more then, besides the ones ordered by IA. Never knew that. Are you aware of any carrier flying them in the 4 configuration or were they sold and all converted over to 2 after sale?
There is debate about that plane doing revenue flying for BCal or if they simply let Airbus use the plane as a test bed to get a discount on a very early build new model. As far as I know, this is the only one converted back to normal gear. I think Indian Airlines may have had a few with that config, but if they did they were probably ex-Air India birds.

Edit: Yep.
Indian-Airlines.jpg
 
..............

This might be one of the best airmanship stories ever.

[Of course, equally plausible is forgetting to verify fuel before departure...]

This might be one of the worst airmanship stories ever.
The difference between these two is a pretty thin line, isn't it?

I hope I'm always on one side or the other.......:D
 
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Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee member Capt Mohan Ranganathan said several factors may have contributed to the accident.

"There is fatigue, stress due to zero visibility and the knowledge of being low on fuel," said Ranganathan. "Under these conditions, the heart rate of the pilot would have been extremely high and the body would have experienced sugar depletion, resulting in momentary disorientation."


Looks like the investigation is about done.
 
Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee member Capt Mohan Ranganathan said several factors may have contributed to the accident.

"There is fatigue, stress due to zero visibility and the knowledge of being low on fuel," said Ranganathan. "Under these conditions, the heart rate of the pilot would have been extremely high and the body would have experienced sugar depletion, resulting in momentary disorientation."


Looks like the investigation is about done.

I just spent a year over in that part of the world and there seems to be a culture of diverting blame/ not admitting mistakes. You don't really see the phrase "pilot error" that often.
 
I just spent a year over in that part of the world and there seems to be a culture of diverting blame/ not admitting mistakes. You don't really see the phrase "pilot error" that often.
Hey, is that a Just C—oh, wait, nevermind. *Innocent*

But yeah, that's -very- common in the software engineering world, as well. I suspect it's cultural.

Director> "What's the progress on the release?"
Engineering> "My team is blocked by SVCS-4207. We are waiting on Operations to do the needful."
Systems> "Wait, what? We replied to that ticket a week ago. You're not blocked. Your commits have been failing because Ritesh has a lock on one file that he needs to release. You manage your own locks, and commits to the other tree is completely unaffected. What have you been doing for the past two weeks??"
Engineering> "My team was blocked by this problem and SVCS-4292, and we could not work."
Systems> "SVCS-4292 was closed because we do not allow rsh without an ssh wrapper. We told you that from the start..."
Engineering> "We are blocked without rsh, and we cannot meet our deadline because of Systems team."
Systems> "We provided you an ssh wrapper—all you have to do is add your private key when you login."
Engineering> "No, it does not work. We are blocked."
Systems> "...!"

~Fox
[NB. Not a real conversation, but near enough as to make no nevermind!]
 
I just spent a year over in that part of the world and there seems to be a culture of diverting blame/ not admitting mistakes. You don't really see the phrase "pilot error" that often.
Well, this is the same country that, when recently threatened to have its safety category downgraded by the FAA, responded by saying it would put out an embargo on Boeing-made aircraft being delivered to Air India. FAA says strengthen your safety programs for the sake of American passengers(and their own really), and they respond with a threat.

http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/india-warns-faa-over-air-safety-downgrade-22346
 
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You'd think that Boeing would support India on this. The higher the flight risk, the more the planes will crash, the more replacement airplane they buy, and the wheel goes 'round and 'round. The only downside I see with this scheme is running out of Indians who fly, but with a population of 1.25 BILLION people, that won't happen anytime soon.
 
You'd think that Boeing would support India on this. The higher the flight risk, the more the planes will crash, the more replacement airplane they buy, and the wheel goes 'round and 'round. The only downside I see with this scheme is running out of Indians who fly, but with a population of 1.25 BILLION people, that won't happen anytime soon.
The 787 does a pretty good job of catching fire without the help of Indian pilots.
 
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