Indigo Pilots mistook road for Jaipur Airport Runway, Grounded

mangaloretoday.com

Jaipur May 23, 2016 : It was a near miss for an Indigo aircraft after the pilots mistook a road running parallel to the Jaipur airport as the runway while landing on February 27, 2016.

 

The Ahmedabad-Jaipur flight 6E-237 was hardly 900 feet, or less than 1.5 minutes, away from touchdown when the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) blared in the cockpit. The alarms prompted the pilots to pull up barely a few hundred feet from the ground.

Both pilots have been grounded by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). The aviation controller had ordered a probe into the incident.

An aircraft descends at around 700 feet-a-minute during approach. The EGPWS is an audio warning in the cockpit capable of waking up a sleeping pilot.

Meanwhile, the airline has maintained that at no point was safety of passengers was “compromised”.
"IndiGo Flight 6E-237 enroute Ahmedabad to Jaipur being operated with A320 aircraft VT-IGK was involved in EGPWS “TOO LOW TERRAIN” warning on 27 February 2016 when the aircraft was on finals during visual approach at runway 27 at Jaipur (VIJP). The Captain-in-command immediately took a precautionary measure and carried a go-around. The aircraft landed safely on subsequent ILS approach on runway 27.

"At IndiGo, the safety and security of customers, crew and the aircraft is the top priority – At no time the safety was compromised. Both the pilot have been taken off from flight duty with immediate effect by IndiGo Chief of Flight Safety pending investigation," the statement read.