Thai Air Asia A320 lands on closed runway

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

An Airbus with 140 passengers landed on a closed runway being repaired on Sunday afternoon. A disaster could be averted as the engineers and the others working on the runway managed to run away in time.

 

The Thai Air Asia flight from Bangkok landed at 12.06pm on the primary runway that was closed from 11.38am to 2.30pm for “routine” upkeep.

 

“Apparently it was the pilot’s fault. The pilot had been instructed to land on the secondary airport. The directorate-general of civil aviation has ordered a probe,” said an airport official.

 

The airline management, however, claimed that the flight plan the Calcutta air traffic control (ATC) had provided to the pilot before the take-off from Bangkok did not state that the primary runway would be temporarily closed for repairs.

 

“The flight plan is sent to the pilot by the ATC of the destination airport before take-off. In this case, the plan had no mention about the closed runway,” said an airline official.

 

The pilot was questioned for an hour.

 

The airport authorities said they had issued a Notam (notice to airmen) mentioning the timing of the closure of the primary runway.

 

As a precautionary measure, the walkie-talkie sets of those working on the runway were tuned to the frequency of the communication between the pilots and the air traffic control.

 

“The aircraft landed at the northern end of the runway, near which the men were working. They sprinted to safety as soon as they realised that the aircraft was landing on the closed runway,” said an official.

 

Sources said the plane was hurtling at 250km per hour after touchdown. “There could have been a disaster had the aircraft hit any person or object at that speed,” said the official.

 

When a runway is closed for maintenance, the path-indicator lights on either flank are switched off to avoid confusion.

 

Officials claimed those lights were switched off on the main runway while it was closed for repairs on Sunday.

 

The airport had seen a similar close shave in December 2008 when a SpiceJet flight (Boeing) from Bagdogra had landed on the main runway that was closed for repair. The pilot saw men and machines on the runway and screeched the aircraft to a halt.

 

Seems this story is being kept well under wraps

[Y. J. Foo 0]

Luckily there was no heavy machinery along the closed runway, else it could be SQ006 all over again (although that was take-off).

 

Would be interesting to see whose side of the story was true.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Y. J. Foo

[Radzi 2]

Where, when?

[Zamir 0]

Do the crew see the ground equiqments on landing ?

[flee 5]

Follow Up Story from the Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Plane-stalls-after-landing-ops-affected/articleshow/9019548.cms

 

KOLKATA: A day after a Thai AirAsia flight landed on primary runway when it was shut for maintenance work, an IndiGo Airlines flight was stranded on the same runway after its nosewheel jammed seconds after touchdown. With the Airbus A-320 aircraft stranded on the tarmac, flight operations were suspended for 18 minutes. Around seven planes that were scheduled to land hovered in the sky till the aircraft was towed away.

 

On Sunday afternoon, Kolkata airport was rocked by a major scare when a Thai AirAsia flight landed while patch repair work was underway. Men and machine were hurriedly moved away for the plane with 141 passengers to make a safe landing. An investigation is underway into the incident.

 

It was at 2.14pm on Monday that the IndiGo Airlines flight from Guwahati carrying 85 passengers landed on the primary runway. Seconds later, it came to a halt at the end of the runway, unable to turn into the taxiway and head towards the parking bay. The pilot could not steer the aircraft as the nose wheel had jammed. He immediately contacted the air traffic control tower and explained the situation.

 

With seven planes queued up for landing, the ATC asked the pilots to hover over the airport till the runway was cleared. A tow-van rushed to the tarmac and pulled the plane out of the runways.

 

Meanwhile, Thai pilot Udomsak Wangmaitree, who had triggered a major scare on Sunday afternoon, has apologised to Kolkata airport officials for the goof-up. Following the incident, the pilot was grilled for an hour by a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official.

 

It was the alertness of an apron control security supervisor that had saved the day. A Aruna was keeping an eye on flights while men were at work on the runway. It was she who spotted the Thai AirAsia flight making the wrong approach and rushed the workers as well as two rollers off the tarmac just before the plane landed.

 

While keeping a watch over incoming flights is a standard operating procedure, the prescribed time limit to clear a runway of men and machinery during an emergency is 30 minutes. On Sunday, Aruna had only a fraction of the time to react and remove the men from peril. While she managed to do so, her task had been relatively easy as the men had just started working on the runway.

 

"Had the plane arrived half hour later when more machines and men would have been on the runway, it would not have been possible to clear it so quickly," an airport official said.

 

On December 1, 2008, the pilot of a SpiceJet flight carrying 139 passengers from Bagdogra had made the same error and landed on the primary runway when maintenance work was underway. Then, the pilot had managed to brake hard and stop before crashing into the machines at the fag end of the runway. On Sunday though, the work site was barely 500 metre from touchdown point, making it impossible for the pilot to avoid a disaster even if he had applied emergency brakes.

[Ikman Ikreza 0]

Luckily there was no heavy machinery along the closed runway, else it could be SQ006 all over again (although that was take-off).

 

Would be interesting to see whose side of the story was true.

 

Yup, luckily nothing bad happend. Remind us on SQ006 tragedy 9V-SPK, was destroyed in a take-off accident at Taipei-Chiang Kai Shek Airport (TPE), Taiwan because of taking the wrong runway.

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

Radzi , refer to this : http://www.jacdec.de/news/news.htm

[Jessnor Arif 1]

Calcutta... I thought at KUL at first

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

DATE: 26.06.2011 LOCAL TIME: 12:07 LOCATION: Kolkata-Intl AP (VECC) COUNTRY: India

AIRLINE: Thai Air Asia TYPE: Airbus A320 REGISTRATION: -

C/N: 32797

AGE: 8 y + 4 m

OPERATION:

ISP FLIGHT No.: - FROM: Bangkok TO: Kolkata VIA: -

OCCUPANTS:

PAX: 141 CREW: -

FATALITIES:

PAX: 0 CREW: 0 OTHER: 0

INJURIES:

PAX: 0 CREW: 0 OTHER: 0

DAMAGE TO AIRCRAFT: none

1

 

The pilots landed on a closed runway but managed to roll out safely. At the time, the main runway 19L/01R was closed due to temporary maintenance works from 11:30 to 14:30. Ground workers were alerted by the approaching aircraft and quickly fled the runway just in time before the A320 touched down. The incident is under investigation.

[Pieter C. 5]

Shouldn't ATC not be on the look-out too, and had told the crew to abort landing and make an overshoot, once they would have seen the incident ??? I mean, you cannot put the blame 100% at the crew, after receiving landing clearance from ATC...