Skummelt flyselskap i India - Curt Lewis

 

 

 

 

 

Mumbai air ambulance belly landing: DGCA orders ‘complete safety audit’ of operator; AAIB to probe accident

NEW DELHI: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will probe the Thursday night belly-landing of an air ambulance in Mumbai. Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief Arun Kumar has ordered a “complete safety audit” of the aircraft operator Jet Serve Aviation.

“The aircraft has suffered substantive damages so the AAIB will investigate this case,” said senior officials. There were five people on board — two pilots, a patient, an attendant and a doctor — on board the Beechcraft King Air C 90 which lost its tyre during take off from Nagpur Airport on Thursday night.

An alert CISF personnel saw the wheel fall off the aircraft and reported the same to airport authorities. This allowed Nagpur ATC to alert the pilots of the turboprop and Mumbai Airport. Accordingly, the pilots decided to keep flying to exhaust fuel and the airport’s fire-fighters sprayed foam on the runway. Both these things were done to minimise chances of fire when the aircraft made a belly landing. Luckily, the pilots led by Captain Kesari Singh carried out a safe belly landing. As soon the aircraft (VT-JIL) came to a halt, Mumbai Airport fire-fighters sprayed fire retardants on it.

An air ambulance with a lung transplant patient and four others carried out a ‘belly landing’—touchdown sans landing gear—at Mumbai airport after a wheel of the aircraft fell off during takeoff from Nagpur on Wednesday evening.

Air ambulance makes ‘belly landing’ at Mumbai airport after wheel falls off

“The airport’s emergency response team including the fire and rescue responders, follow-me vehicles, CISF, medical team amongst many others was activated instantly and on standby to provide immediate assistance to ensure the safe evacuation of the passengers. As a precautionary method, CSMIA also foamed runway 27 in order to avoid the aircraft catching fire. All passengers were evacuated safely and flights operating in and out of Mumbai Airport remain on schedule,” Mumbai Airport has said in a statement Thursday night.

Several pilots want a detailed probe into the aircraft maintenance record of this operator, “especially a plane at Hyderabad with fuel leak issues”. Aviation industry insiders are questioning aircraft maintenance by Jet Serve Aviation and DGCA has now ordered complete safety audit.