Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Close shave as plane tries to land without deploying gear

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji:18.12.2019

Sixty-five passengers and crew of a SpiceJet flight from Surat had a narrow escape on Tuesday morning when the landing gear of the aircraft malfunctioned while attempting to land at Goa International Airport.

The aircraft, a Bombardier Q400, landed only at the third attempt at the Dabolim naval air base, a Navy spokesperson said. Alert Navy officials at the airport noticed that the aircraft’s nose landing gear had not deployed and ordered the aircraft to abort landing.

“The second attempt proved unsuccessful too and the front landing gear was partially deployed only on the third attempt. The flight landed safely at 8.05am with assistance from emergency and safety services to recover the aircraft,” the Navy spokesperson said. The flight had departed from Surat at 6.15am and was scheduled to land at Dabolim at 7.35am.

The Navy said an alert runway controller and the air traffic control (ATC) officer at INS Hansa helped prevent the aircraft from crashing. Naval sources said the flight was on final approach for landing at Goa airport when the runway controller, Ramesh Tigga, noticed that the nose landing gear was not deployed.

Most commercial aircraft have a main hydraulic system to lift and lower the landing gear that can be used multiple times. If it fails, there is an independent emergency system to cope with emergencies such as the one that occurred on Tuesday.

In the cockpit, three lights glow green when all the gear is successfully lowered. “The pilot suspected that the nose landing gear was not fully down and locked. He informed ATC and requested for a visual check of the gear. He flew past the ATC for a visual check. ATC conveyed that the nose landing gear was not down,” SpiceJet said in a statement.

Tigga immediately alerted the ATC tower where the duty air traffic controller, Lt Cdr Harmeet Kaur, quickly radioed the incoming aircraft to abort landing and make a second attempt after a go-around. “The alert action of naval air traffic and safety services saved the SpiceJet flight and all its passengers from a major accident at Goa airfield,” officials said.



CLOSE SHAVE: The SpiceJet Q400 at Goa airport on Tuesday

No comments:

Post a Comment

NEWS TODAY 21.12.2024