4runner
I doubt whether icing was a factor at this time of the year at the level that he would be operating at. However water can be a problem if the brake units are exposed for long periods. After a normal landing, the gear has only been exposed for a short period, and any water is dissipated by the heat of braking. However, at this time of the year there can be some big storms around Mumbai and so the gear might be exposed for long periods.
I carried out a base training detail on a wet runway at Prestwick a few years ago. We had to cut short the detail due to water ingestion into the Brake Limiters (no brake heating during touch-and-goes). The Air India captain would have known that the Mumbai runway can be very wet during the monsoon and would not have wanted to land with any brake problems.
The alterntes for Mumbai are a long way away. Chennai is the usual alternate, over the other side of India. A diversion would have had to be carried out with the gear down. We don't know what the Mumbai and Chennai weather was at the time.
We also don't know what other faults that there were with the aircraft and what had caused the gear not to come up.
If one flight had already been completed and then a long engineering investigation taken place, there were probably flight duty limit aspects, especially with a slow, and long, flight plan.
I'm sure that the captain made a professional decision based on the known facts.
Dave
PS. The freezing level over the entire route is usually about FL170 in June. With dynamic heating you would not expect ice buildup on the gear below FL200.
Last edited by Captain Airclues; 24th June 2009 at 22:05.
Reason: add freezing level info