Air India landing row: Maldives’ probe faults ATC, airport operator, co-pilot
NEW DELHI: Maldivian authorities probing the landing of an Air India (AI) aircraft at an under-construction runway at Male Airport last September have concluded that the co-pilot of that flight was aware of a notice to airmen (NOTAM) about the upcoming airstrip but did not alert the pilot-in-command (PIC) about the same.
To compound matters, air traffic controllers (ATC) at Male’s Velana International Airport were “completely distracted when AI flight landed on the runway under construction” and “the ‘closed runway’ markings on the runway under construction were not” clear.
This landing-on-wrong-runway had happened on September 7, 2018, when AI 263 operating on Thiruvananthapuram-Male sector with 107 passengers and seven crew members on board landed on an under construction runway. Luckily the Airbus A320 (VT-EXL) landed and stopped safely on the runway which was yet to be commissioned for operations with the left side main landing gear tyre getting damaged. No one on board the plane was injured.
