An IndiGo aircraft performing a house flight on Sunday suffered a tail strike upon landing at Delhi airport. This occurred merely days after one different aircraft belonging to the service returned to Delhi following an engine shutdown. Earlier this 12 months, the Indian aviation regulator had ordered a probe after rising situations of IndiGo planes involved in tail strikes surfaced.
Grounded in Delhi
On June eleventh, an IndiGo aircraft touring from Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Worldwide Airport (CCU) to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport (DEL) suffered a tail strike whereas landing. The Airbus A321 was performing flight 6E-6183 with a scheduled departure of 18:55 and arrival of 21:10.
The plane has been grounded in Delhi, and India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate Widespread of Civil Aviation (DGCA), outlined what exactly occurred, saying,
“The flight was uneventful till technique to land at Delhi. All through technique on runway 27, the crew felt that they floated longer than common and initiated a go-around. All through the go-around manoeuvre, most likely the underside of the tail portion of the aircraft touched the runway ground and sustained damages. The working crew have been off-rostered pending investigation.”
The aircraft involved throughout the incident is an Airbus A321neo with the registration VT-IMG. It’s decrease than a 12 months and a half outdated and was delivered to IndiGo in February 2022. As of March thirty first, 2023, it has accrued over 4,000 flying hours all through 2,625 flight cycles.
Totally different incidents
The tails strike incident comes merely days after one different IndiGo A321 was involved in an engine failure. The aircraft was performing a flight between Delhi and Chennai nonetheless wanted to make a return after one in all its CFM LEAP engines failed.
The plane reached an altitude of 13,000ft when it stopped climbing and circled once more to Delhi – pilots reported an engine shutdown and requested permission for an emergency landing, which was granted.
{Photograph}: BoeingMan777/Shutterstock
In January, one different one in all IndiGo A321 was involved in a tail strike incident all through landing after a short worldwide flight between Dhaka and Kolkata. It was performing flight 6E1859, a every day scheduled service between Dhaka and Kolkata, with a flight time of spherical 40 minutes. Fortuitously, passengers in all of these incidents have been protected, with no reported accidents.
Tail strike
Relying upon the severity of the impression and totally different parts, tail strikes pose necessary threats to the aircraft building and the safety of passengers. They occur when the tail of an airplane contacts the underside all through takeoff or landing.
There could be numerous causes for a tail strike. A number of of the frequent ones all through takeoffs embrace the utilization of incorrect speeds, poor rotation method (when the pilot pulls once more on the yoke or facet stick), and incorrect aircraft coronary heart of gravity or mistrimmed stabilizer.
{Photograph}: Simlinger / Shutterstock
A number of of the causes for tail strikes all through landings embrace unstabilized approaches, too low an technique velocity, and too extreme or too low of a landing flare.
Simple Flying has moreover revealed an analysis on tail strikes, giving an in depth pilot’s perspective on such incidents.
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