ATC instructed Air India pilot instructed to abort first landing of Thiruvananthapuram flight due to debris: DGCA
This followed a message relayed to them by the pilots of an earlier departing flight about debris being present near the runway.
In a statement, the regulator also said the pilots of AI 2455 thought that the weather radar inside the cockpit had malfunctioned and was giving inaccurate information and this made them take the decision to divert the flight to Chennai. Later, a component in the nose cone of the aircraft, WX radar transceiver, which feeds inputs to the weather radar, was replaced as a precautionary measure before the flight finally took off from Chennai to Delhi.
Flight AI2455 with 178 passengers, including five MPs from Kerala, plus seven crew members, had an emergency landing at Chennai airport on Sunday night due to turbulent weather and a suspected technical issue in the aircraft. AICC General Secretary and MP K C Venugopal, who was seated inside the flight, later billed the whole issue as a 'harrowing experience' in a long post on X.
He alleged that the aircraft was frighteningly close to tragedy as it was 'a heart-stopping moment' during the first landing attempt.
'Another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway. In that split second, the Captain's quick decision to pull up saved every life. We were saved by skill and luck. Passenger safety cannot depend on luck.'
Venugopal's remark was immediately countered by Air India on X which denied any danger posed by any other aircraft. 'The go-around was instructed by the Chennai ATC during the first attempted landing at the airport. It was not because of the presence of another aircraft on the runway.'
The DGCA's statement gave minute details about the incident. It said that the A320 aircraft took off from Thiruvananthapuram only at 8.04 pm instead of its scheduled time of 7.15 pm. The delay of 49 minutes was due to the delayed arrival of the aircraft arriving here from Delhi.
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