Snag in IA Airbus persists

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 4. An Airbus-300 plane, involved in the turbulent air pocket incident on September 25 and subsequently grounded on Tuesday night at Chennai airport as the jet developed a problem in its undercarriage, which was test flown today proved that the ``snag persisted in the undercarriage''.

Capt. N. Sivaramakrishnan, an IA check pilot, commanded the 20- minute test flight along with another pilot and flight engineers on-board.

Meanwhile, when the test flight proved that the technical snag stayed on, another Airbus-320 aircraft was mobilised to operate a scheduled Mumbai-bound service in the morning. Now the Airbus-300 jet bearing registration number (VT-EVD) was later sent in the evening to Mumbai as a ``maintenance ferry flight'' to facilitate a thorough examination of all the landing gear parameters of the jet.

According to airline sources at the airport, this particular Airbus-300 aircraft leased from Philippines Airlines had been having problems continuously in its undercarriage. Interestingly, the airline has recently extended the lease agreement for a further period of 3 years on this aircraft despite the continued prevalence of the snag.

Meanwhile, stung by a spate of emergency landings involving Airbus-300 and Boeing-737s at the Chennai airport within a span of one week, a fresh directive has been issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that all ``incidents'' be ``reported promptly and immediately to Mr. K. Gohain, Deputy Director General of the DGCA, by the respective Regional Directors and Head of the Flight Safety Department of the region concerned''. The regulatory body's fresh all-India directive also warns that non-adherence to this directive by the officials concerned would be viewed ``very seriously''.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Karunanidhi asks Centre to upgrade IA aircraft
           maintenance
Next     : PIL against skyscrapers in front of missile
           battery complex