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Kingfisher pilot grounded

NEW DELHI: A Kingfisher airline pilot has been grounded after the tail-skid of an aircraft that he was commanding scraped the ground on the runway while landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport here this past week. All the 23 passengers on board reportedly escaped unscathed.

All aircraft are generally equipped with a special tail strike avoidance component known as tail-skid that is designed to avoid any potential impact while landing.

The incident took place on Wednesday morning when Kingfisher Airlines flight IT 2332 coming in from Udaipur experienced a tail-skid scrape while landing on the second runway at Delhi airport. The flight was being operated using an ATR 72 aircraft.

“In keeping with Kingfisher Airlines’ policy of placing guest safety and comfort above everything else, the commander of the aircraft was de-rostered from active flight duties pending investigation,” said an airline spokesperson on Saturday.

As per the guidelines of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, the pilot has been relieved of his command by the airline. “Owing to the presence of such tail strike avoidance components, tail strike incidents do not cause significant damage or danger. Our investigation revealed that the tail-skid had been scraped very slightly. The scrape on the tail-skid was well within normally acceptable limits specified in this regard,” added the spokesperson.

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