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Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 11 The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued show-cause notices to three airlines on Wednesday for alleged violations of its directions regarding wet runway operations at Mumbai airport following the skidding of Kingfisher Aircraft on Tuesday.

The notices were issued to Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir and National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the operator of Air India.

An ATR aircraft of Kingfisher Airlines operating in the Bhavnagar-Mumbai sector skidded off the runway on November 10 while landing at Mumbai at 4.40 p.m. resulting in damage to aircraft and bringing operations to a halt at the airport for an hour and a half. “DGCA has ordered investigation into the incident. DGCA has de-rostered in all six pilots of three operators – Kingfisher, GoAir and NACIL. The three airlines on November 10, 2009, operated flights during wet runway conditions. DGCA has issued show-cause notices to three operators for alleged violations of its directions regarding wet runway operations,” said a release from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. According to the release, keeping in view the inputs received from the review being carried out by DGCA at MIAL on short runway before and after the operations, the regulator “issued certain directions to all airlines for strict compliance when using Runway 27A (short runway) on Tuesday, November 10 onward.

These directions are in addition to the existing directions of the regulator,” it added.

The directions include, Pilot-1 should be a Training Captain and Pilot-2 should have minimum 300 hours of experience on type. No assisted take-off and landing is permitted. No operation shall take place when runway surface is wet. Pilots are required to file a de-briefing report after every flight.

“DGCA is undertaking a full review of safety assessment for short runway operations at MIAL and will take appropriate decision,” said the release.

The MIAL has undertaken the full re-construction of Runway 14/32 including the overlay of the Runway inter-section between October 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010 for four months on 24X7 basis and Runway 27 is available for operations between October 25, 2009 and March 27, 2010, for six hours between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on every Tuesday.

“Only short runway operations were permitted on Runway 27A side. These short runway operations were permitted after undertaking full safety assessment and operational requirements in consultation with airlines, Airports Authority of India, MIAL and other stakeholders. It is also mentioned that during the closure period on Tuesday, a total of 84 movements are involved,” said the release.

MIAL has been directed by DGCA to carry out videography of operations on every Tuesday during runway operations.

More Stories on : Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Airlines | Maharashtra

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