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Air India at Jaipur last night

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Air India at Jaipur last night

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Old 6th Jan 2014, 15:59
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Air India at Jaipur last night

Only heard sketchy details of the incident, but an Air India A320 had an eventful arrival at JAI last night.

It was a fog divert from Delhi. JAI wx was forecast to be ok, but when they arrived on their diversion, the place had fogged out.

Low on fuel, they had no option but to declare an emergency and make some sort of approach ( an auto land maybe?, I know not).

Anyway a runway excursion ensued ( or they touched down off to the side) which burst a tyre and damaged the undercarriage and a wing.

This shut the airport until the following afternoon as it was too foggy to even recover the aircraft from the runway.

Only facts for sure are that the airport was shut, it was an AI 320 and there was at least a tyre out.

No doubt the correct version will emerge soon, only posting this as seen nothing else anywhere.

No lives lost or injuries, so a happy outcome for all. Can't have been fun for the crew though.
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Old 6th Jan 2014, 16:08
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Quite an eventful day yesterday

Thanks to the Air India aircraft Jaipur airport got shut down

SpiceJet flight SG 256 from Goa - Delhi had diverted to Jaipur as well thanks to the low visibility in Delhi

After diverting to jaipur finding the airport closed they went back to Delhi this time squawking 7700 and declaring fuel emergency
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Old 6th Jan 2014, 16:26
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Yup, aircraft appears to have gone agricultural and clipped its left wing against trees.

One wonders how AI will use this to extort cash out of Boeing?
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Old 6th Jan 2014, 17:14
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Photo of said a/c

Jaipur: Air India plane tyre bursts, left wing damaged - News Oneindia

Quote : One wonders how AI will use this to extort cash out of Boeing?

AI will talk to AIRBUS ! Its a 320-231

BTW what is interesting is that this a/c has double bogie landing gear aparently this was unique for AI... so the tyre going off would be quite an interesting sequence of events

Last edited by Joles; 6th Jan 2014 at 17:24. Reason: Addl Info
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Old 6th Jan 2014, 17:43
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In Europe this would have been a non event. A fuel emergency followed by an autoland in weather below CAT 1.
In India, an autoland on a CAT 1 runway is not the smartest thing to do. On most ILS approaches the LOC is so unstable you nearly get sea sick before you land.
This was most likely an autoland in below CAT 1 weather that ended bad. Or they tried to hand fly in low vis conditions.
Either way, they quickly ran out of options. Not a nice situation to be in.
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Old 6th Jan 2014, 22:11
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Joles, I think you missed the sarcasm.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 00:05
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In India, an autoland on a CAT 1 runway is not the smartest thing to do
ManaAda, while a agree in principal with where you're coming from with that comment, at first glance, and with what little information we have to hand so far, the crew seem to have made the best of a very nasty situation. A slightly bent aeroplane with no injuries to pax, crew or anyone on the ground seems to me to the best outcome possible for a situation like that.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 03:16
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This in from the Mumbai Mirror: "the plane, commissioned in 1991, was Air India's oldest serving aircraft."

An Air India pilot on Sunday made a 'blind landing' in Jaipur in zero visibility, saving the lives of 173 passengers on board.

The Air India flight 890 from Guwahati was scheduled to land in Delhi, but was diverted to Jaipur as the Indira Gandhi Airport was shut due to heavy fog.

Unfortunately for pilot Captain Jalal Vats, who had by then been flying for more than 12 hours, visibility at Jaipur's Sanganer Airport was also zero.

Suspecting he may not have enough fuel for any more detours, Captain Vats decided to land the flight using the Instrument Landing System, which helps with landing in low visibility.

As the Airbus 320 type aircraft landed off the centre line of the runway, it careened onto unpaved surface. As the pilot tried to correct course, the left wing hit an unidentified object.


Three images > Miracle in Jaipur - Mumbai Mirror
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 05:33
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also this from the above 'Miracle' story:

"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."

He did not rule out a system error. He said if the pilot was on ILS and was following a localiser (an instrument that provides runway guidance), and there was a signal error, the pilot may gotten wrong directions."

Last edited by hkgmjq; 7th Jan 2014 at 05:34. Reason: source clarification
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 05:45
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Unconfirmed reports now say the autopilot was knocked off at 100 feet to touchdown.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 06:00
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ManaAda, while a agree in principal with where you're coming from with that comment, at first glance, and with what little information we have to hand so far, the crew seem to have made the best of a very nasty situation. A slightly bent aeroplane with no injuries to pax, crew or anyone on the ground seems to me to the best outcome possible for a situation like that.
I agree. My comment re autoland in India was of a general nature. Even CAT 3 in Delhi has a fluctuating LOC.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 06:15
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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.
Nice to know that empty tanks can't explode
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 08:19
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Surprised that no one has commented on the fact that an aircraft which departed with legal fuel reserves very nearly didn't make it. Yes, it WAS because of unfortunate and unexpected circumstances. Nevertheless, a very good example to rub into all those "minimum legal fuel" beancounters' faces that extra reserves for mum isn't such a bad idea.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 11:57
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"India" and "minimum fuel" in the same sentence gives me immediate diarrhea.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 12:18
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Happy to learn the Indians still try to make a hero out of you after a stupidity.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 12:56
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Would like to see our smartypants bring one in when sudden unexpected fog zeroes all the landing strips on his FMC.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 13:01
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And how would that unexpectedly happen?
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 14:03
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Dynamite1 Would like to see our smartypants bring one in when sudden unexpected fog zeroes all the landing strips on his FMC.


What were you trying to say
Your inexperience shines through
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 16:29
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Well, Delhi being socked in at this time of year is a surprise to no Air India pilot.

Same for JAI.

As far as I can tell, they don't do the ' destination unworkable, so get two workable diversions' routine as we do in the UK.

In India your dest has to be forecast to be ok, or you mustn't go.

Fuel policy in India is different. There's always 'holding' fuel. ( good!)
But there's never 'final reserve' fuel. (Not so good....)

So launch with min fuel, and you might think you have holding fuel. But if you divert, then hold, you land 'tanks dry' as there's no final reserve.
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Old 7th Jan 2014, 20:58
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A captain always has the final word about the fuel.

I wonder where all the other planes with destination Delhi crashed that day. I guess there must have been quite a few who were not able to land there.

We live in a time where people fly cruising levels solely derived from the FMC, and gas up planes with numbers found on flight plans.

And we are not speaking of a loco, but a national airline.

Then if the story is true, that, once in an emergency, and the decision was made to land in this weather, the pilot made a manual landing, I have no more words at all.
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