Indigo catches fire upon landing in Nepal

[Boeingrestricted]

The report goes: A320 catches fire before landing , hmmm the last place, if
one could choose at all , to catch a fire....

[High Energy]

Another angle to this story here. Brake fire AFTER landing...

Incident: Indigo A320 at Kathmandu on Mar 8th 2014, smoke from brakes during roll out (http://avherald.com/h?article=47112400&opt=0)

[Boeingrestricted]

makes more sense to me High Energy, that's why I wrote upon landing as for the thread. But kept in line with my source of info.

[VijayMallya]

How is this in the ME thread?

[Neptunus Rex]

For the geographically challenged, of course.

[alouette3]

Just saw the news clip of the evacuation. Can't believe it but it looked as if the passengers were evacuating with their carry on baggage down the chute.:ugh:Is anybody paying attention over there???!!!! DGCA, Indigo,cabin crew, flight crew ,ground crew, Bueller???:mad:
And yes, I agree there are a few geographically challenged individuals here,(which is strange given the milieu we operate in), but even the Mods----??:*
Alt3

[Old King Coal]

I would suspect the sequence went like this:
The aircraft landed in Kathmandu.
It was maybe at its maximum Performance Limited Landing Weight, e.g. perhaps due to tankering fuel into KTM (which is a regular practice by most airlines - mine included - due to the price of fuel at KTM) and which (along with 1, above) requires a high-level of braking in order to stop the aircraft on the runway (and especially so if they were to float / land 'deep'), and therein the brakes would get v.hot. Nb. It takes a couple of minutes for the heat in the brakes to build-up to the point where they cause a problem with the tyres.
The aircraft vacated the runway, and taxied for a couple of minutes (see closing comments in 2 above) to its parking position on the ramp.
The ramp crew are waiting at the parking position, ready to apply chocks, steps, baggage handling equipment, catering, honey-truck, etc... (which is why lots of ramp equipment can be seen in the video)
The brakes are set and the seatbelt sign is switched off (the crew, at this stage, do not have any indication of anything being wrong... aside, perhaps, from the brake temp sensors suggesting that the temps on brakes 3 & 4 are 'high'; albeit that's assuming that such sensor are fitted?).
The passengers leave their seats, begin removing their belongings from the overhead lockers. They are now standing in the aisle, with their hands full of their belongings, and are anticipating leaving the aircraft via normal means (i.e. via the steps).
At about this time, a "Fire!" at the right main gear is reported to the flight crew.
The Captain initiates an evacuation over the PA.
As part of initiating an emergency evacuation, the Cabin Crew would first check that the outside areas are clear of obstructions before opening the doors (and therein blowing the slides... always assuming that the slides were still armed, remembering that they had just pulled onto stand and that the normal sequence is for the Cabin Crew to disarm the doors). However, on the left side of the aircraft there are passenger steps now in the way, and thus they can only open the doors on the right hand side.
The eagle-eyed might also notice that the flaps are not set (down), i.e. for the passengers to slide down, if they're evacuating via the over-wing exits. That would most certainly be due to a lack of hydraulic power; what with the engines having been shutdown and / or the electric hydraulic pumps (which would be slow to run in any case) having been switched off (as part of the normal on-chocks shutdown sequence) and which the flight crew had probably completed, i.e. prior to being told about a 'fire'.


So, for those bemoaning that the passengers were evacuating with their baggage in their hand, if given the above as possible sequence of events, it is highly understandable and / or indeed highly likely that the pax would indeed evacuate the aircraft with their belongings in their hand, and it is probably better that they did so (rather than dropping their baggage into the aisle and therein cluttering it up... remembering that neither the passengers or crew were expecting or anticipating an emergency evacuation at that particular point in the proceedings).

This sort of event is most certainly a tricky one to deal with, i.e. an unplanned emergency evacuation (due to a 'fire'); occurring on the parking bay; with poor or little or no communications with the ground crew (aside from them doing a lot of hand waving and head-wobbling); with no hydraulic power available (to move the flaps); with ground handling equipment being pulled into position around the outside of the aircraft; with the passengers in the process of getting ready to the leave the aircraft (along with their cabin baggage); with the doors disarmed; etc, etc...

Note to self: this is is an excellent scenario to add to ones armoury for the simulator ! :E

Dramatic evacuation after Indigo plane catches fire - YouTube

[givemewings]

Couldn't have summed it up any better.

In some cases, for the CC it's a choice between the lesser of two evils when it comes to bags in an evac. With a fire being there, I wouldn't want to waste time tussling over luggage.

Given of course that I'd also try to evaluate as the situation progressed and act accordingly.

Trying to tell a planeful of pax, who may or may not speak your language, to do anything they don't want to do can be akin to drinking from a fire hose now add panic into that mix....

[VijayMallya]

10 .The eagle-eyed might also notice that the flaps are not set (down), i.e. for the passengers to slide down, if they're evacuating via the over-wing exits. That would most certainly be due to a lack of hydraulic power; what with the engines having been shutdown and / or the electric hydraulic pumps (which would be slow to run in any case) having been switched off (as part of the normal on-chocks shutdown sequence) and which the flight crew had probably completed, i.e. prior to being told about a 'fire'.
I am guessing you're from the boeings... the a320 has overwing slides unlike the boeings :)

[vinayak]

perhaps due to tankering fuel into KTM (which is a regular practice by most airlines)


indiGo doesn't tanker fuel to KTM and has brake fans equipped in their 320s... most of the time you're taking off with brakes usually being less than 100 degrees C


The eagle-eyed might also notice that the flaps are not set (down), i.e. for the passengers to slide down, if they're evacuating via the over-wing exits. That would most certainly be due to a lack of hydraulic power

that is not a part of the evacuation procedure... the overwing exits have slides as well

[takeoffpowerset]

looking at the video , it looks like only the right side doors were opened , it beats me when you have fire on your right wheel why open that side door ! any explanations ?

[Old King Coal]

Thanks guys for the heads up wrt Airbus & Indigo specifics and (VijayMallya), yes, I'm a Boeing chap through and through (and the B737 doesn't have over-wing slides, it has flaps) but vive la différence, eh?! :p ... and, hands-up for a "doh!" moment on my part, wherein if I myself had looked more carefully at that video, I'd have seen the over-wing slides being deployed. :O

takeoffpowerset: The Cabin Crew are usually trained to do a visual check that the area outside of the aircraft is clear of obstructions & hazards, before they will open the door. However, in this instance and wrt hazards, it's likely that ground crew would have been in the process of bringing steps up to the doors on the left hand side of the aircraft (they being unaware that an emergency evacuation was imminent), and for the Cabin Crew looking out from inside the aircraft, they might well see the steps in the way but they might not have seen any smoke?!... basically it's much to do with the timing of the event, i.e. a normal deplaning was being implemented by the ground crew, but it was then superseded with an emergency evacuation initiated from inside the aircraft.

One might add that the old-style evacuation call, which typically went along the lines of "This is the Captain. This is an Emergency. Evacuate, Evacuate; Hazard on the [Left] / [Right]" has, in many airlines, been changed to remove the statement about which side a hazard is located, much on the premise that a lot of people seemingly can't tell their left from their right, and / or get confused, and that a look outside of the window is often a better indication of just where a hazard is actually located. Not sure what call is made by Indigo in this respect, i.e. whether or not there is any inclusion, within the evacuation announcement, of which side might be hazardous, and / or if this did (or did not) have any baring on which doors were opened (or not) ?!

[ItsMeFromEarth]

:zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz: :zzz::zzz::zzz:

[VijayMallya]

Old King Coal, being from the boeings... I was a little surprised myself to learn the 320 has slides for the overwing exits...

What i hear through the grapewine, the evac was initiated after the engineers informed of the fire... could have been a confusion with the left/right from the ground end?

The video indicates the fire was rather small... Very small... I wonder why wasn't it doused immediately.

Also, if you notice the aircraft is in the parking bay... either no-one noticed that there was a fire during the taxy in or there was a fluid leak from the hydraulic that pressurizes the parking brakes...


Whatever said and done, everyone is safe! I hear the airplane is back in action...

Is there anything else you can ask for?

Good job indiGo and congratulations to the flight crew (the captains and the pursers) of the said flight! :ok:

[givemewings]

Quite simply a CC looking out of the window on the RHS will not see a (small) fire which is underneath them unless it got big, quite fast. If they saw flames they would not be opening any exits. A bit of smoke is not necessarily in itself a hazard...

Keep in mind that the CC can block at any time and redirect the pax. Wouldn't be the first time an exit was opened as it seemed fine but on getting a proper look the CC would see it's not a good idea to send people down.

A lot depends on if they received specific instructions from the flight deck or not