Aviation safety regulator DGCA has suspended the flying licence of a senior pilot of Madhya Pradesh government for a period of one year for the crash landing of an aircraft at Gwalior airport in May this year. The plane was bringing supplies of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, from Gujarat to Gwalior via Indore in the state-owned plane B-200GT VT MPQ when it crash landed around 9 pm on May 6 at the Gwalior airport, which has an Air Force base.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which carried out a probe into the incident, has suspended the flying licence of the plane’s pilot, Captain Sayyed Majid Akhtar (56), for a year, as per a letter issued last week.
The incident had resulted in major damage to the cockpit front, propeller blades, propeller hub and wheels of the newly-bought plane. The aircraft had skidded and overturned on one side. Akhtar, his co-pilot Shiv Jaiswal and another officer were injured in the incident.
As per the suspension letter, a copy of which is in possession of PTI, Akhtar “flew the aircraft very low and failed to sight the arrester barrier” before the runway. Besides, “the approach profile of the aircraft was not appropriate for landing in the touchdown zone and resulted in hitting the arrester barrier”.
The DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to Akhtar on 1 July, but the explanation given by him was found to be “not satisfactory”, the letter said.
The accident had occurred due to a manual error and the DGCA noted that his actions not only jeopardized the safety of the aircraft, but were also in violation of the Aircraft Rules.
The Madhya Pradesh government had bought the aircraft, a seven-seater Beechcraft King Air B-200GT VT MPQ, from American company ‘Textron Aviation’ for more than Rs 65 crore last year only, sources in the state aviation department said.
Following the crash, the plane was reduced to scrap. It has been kept at the Gwalior airbase for over three months now, allegedly due to lack of maintenance and repair, as it was not insured at the time of the incident, they added.
