Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended the pilots involved in a tail strike incident at Delhi airport on September 9.
IndiGo's flight 6E 6054 on the airline's Airbus A321neo VT-IBI from Delhi to Bengaluru had a major tailstrike and the aircraft has been grounded for the past eight days since, sources told Moneycontrol.
The extent of the suspension isn't final yet, and the pilots involved have been grounded till the DGCA conducts an inquiry into the incident, sources told Moneycontrol. As per a preliminary report, the regulator had issued a show cause notice to both the pilots after the incident.
While commenting on the incident, IndiGo said on September 17: "On 9th September 2024, an IndiGo A321 was grounded in Bangalore due to a tail strike. The aircraft is currently under maintenance and will be back in operations post necessary repairs. The incident is under investigation."
Last year, the DGCA had suspended the IndiGo pilots involved in a tail strike incident at Ahmedabad airport. While the pilot-in-command was suspended for three months, the co-pilot was suspended for a month. The aviation regulator had also fined IndiGo Rs 30 lakh after the airline suffered four tail strike incidents on its A321 aircraft in 2023.
IndiGo had seen four incidents from January to June 2023 when the tail of an aircraft hit the ground during the landing or take-off.
A tail strike occurs when the rear end of an aircraft's body, also called an aft fuselage, scrapes the runway during landing or takeoff. Such incidents can damage a plane.
The DGCA had last year conducted a special audit of the airline's documentation and procedure on operations, training, engineering, and Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) programme.
"During the special audit, certain systemic deficiencies were observed in M/s Indigo Airlines documentation pertaining to operations/training procedures and engineering procedures," the DGCA had said on July 28 last year.
The airline was asked to reply to a show-cause issued and its response was unsatisfactory, the DGCA had said last year. IndiGo was also asked to amend its documents and procedures as required by the aviation regulator and in line with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) guidelines.
In August 2023, IndiGo had taken several steps to avoid any untoward incidents, including picking more experienced pilots to fly the Airbus A321 and eliminating certain procedures that put performance pressure on pilots.
After the aviation regulator's investigations were complete, Ashim Mitra, senior vice president of IndiGo's flight operations, had written to the airline's pilots that they had to decide on the landing flap configuration depending on environment and weather conditions.
Flaps are used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight during a landing or take-off. A Flap 3 landing leads to less drag and, therefore, requires less thrust, decreasing fuel consumption. IndiGo's flight operations have set Flap 3 as the preferred landing configuration; its calculation reflects it saves 10 kg of fuel per landing. IndiGo saves around 1,80,000 kg per day with around 1,800 daily flights.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
