Indigo flight emergency lands in Srinagar.
NEW DELHI: Pilots of IndiGo’s Delhi-Srinagar flight of May 21 (6E-2142) — which had experienced severe turbulence during a hailstorm — safely manoeuvred through most challenging operating circumstances before safely landing the plane with over 220 people on board at its destination. Once encountering hailstorm near Pathankot, they first tried to steer clear of the bad weather. Not allowed to do so, they considered returning to Delhi before deciding to continue to Srinagar. During this time, they got multiple warnings like maximum operating speed and angle of attack fault for the Airbus A321neo (VT-IMD). They flew the aircraft manually (without autopilot) till exiting the hailstorm and declared an urgency situation.The aircraft touched down at Srinagar with everyone safe, and the plane’s nose cone (radome) damaged while flying through the hailstorm.The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), which is probing the incident, said in a statement Friday. “While cruising at 36,000 feet, the aircraft entered hailstorm and severe turbulence near Pathankot. As per the crew statement, they requested Indian Air Force northern control for deviating left towards the international border due to weather on the route. However, it was not approved. Later, the crew contacted Lahore (air traffic control or ATC) to enter their airspace to avoid the weather, but the same was refused too.Crew initially attempted to return (to Delhi) but as they were close to the thunderstorm cloud, they decided to penetrate the weather,” says the report.
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Subsequently, they encountered hailstorm and severe turbulence. “The crew chose to continue at same heading to exit the weather by the shortest route towards Srinagar. While in the thunderstorm cloud, warnings of angle of attack fault, alternate law protection lost, and backup speed scale (being) unreliable were triggered. Due to updraft and down draft encountered by the aircraft, the autopilot tripped and aircraft speed had wide variations.As a result, maximum operating speed/maximum operating Mach warnings and repeated stall warnings were triggered.”ALSO READ | Pakistan refused to bail out IndiGo flight hit by sudden hailstormDuring this period, the DGCA statement says, the plane’s rate of descent reached 8,500 feet per minute. “Crew flew the aircraft manually till they exited the hailstorm. After carrying out all check list actions (ECAM actions), crew declared PAN PAN (urgency call) to Srinagar ATC and requested for RADAR vectors and made a safe landing with auto thrust operating normally. There was no injury to any of the passenger on-board the flight.Post flight walk around revealed damage to the Nose radome,” it added.Indian Air Force sources say: “The NOTAM issued by Pakistani Civil Aviation Authorities was in vogue (barring Indian aircraft from Pak airspace)… The Northern Area Control advised the Indigo crew within the frame of the NOTAM (which is also a regular planning feature for all airlines in their route planning) ensuring safety of aircraft and passenger. The aircraft was immediately assisted in co-ordinating their route diversion by contacting Delhi Area and passing requisite contact frequencies of Lahore control for overflight weather diversion request.““Once Lahore refused overflight clearance, and the aircraft proceeded towards Srinagar, the flight was subsequently professionally assisted till a safe-landing at Srinagar airfield by giving control vectors and groundspeed readouts,” IAF sources added.
