Air India tail strike

AI pilots grounded after tail strike

MUMBAI: An Air India aircraft with 194 people on board had a narrow escape after suffering a tail strike while landing at Mumbai airport on Sunday afternoon. The Airbus A-321 (VT-PPD) was operating as AI 680 from Mangalore to Mumbai. During touchdown, the plane's long tail portion scraped the runway at very high speed for some seconds before the nose wheel was lowered down and the aircraft brought to its correct position.MUMBAI:

Luckily for the 187 passengers and seven crew members on board, the aircraft came to a halt safely. But a crew member reportedly suffered bruises due to the impact of what was possibly a hard landing that may have led to the tail strike.

"Both the pilots have been grounded. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing this incident. We are cooperating with them," said an AI spokesperson. Given the seriousness of the case, the head of DGCA's safety wing, joint DG Lalit Gupta, is handling the case from Delhi as both the AI pilots are based in the capital. The safety regulator's Mumbai unit is also doing a probe since the incident happened there.