New Delhi: Two pilots face axe for landing lapse
The pilots were already grounded pending inquiry.
New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday suspended two pilots of the GoAir airlines for being involved in a “serious incident” at Bengaluru airport on November 11, 2019.
One of the pilots, who is a foreign national, has been suspended for six months while his co-pilot has been suspended for three months from the date of incident. They were flying A320 Neo aircraft that was flying from Nagpur to Bengaluru.
The pilots were already grounded pending inquiry. The preliminary investigations of DGCA revealed that pilots landed the flight even as they lost the “visual reference” 50 feet before the touch down.
“The crew lost visual reference at about 50 feet, however, they continued to land which is in violation of requirements laid down in para 4.6.5 of CAR Section-8, Series-C, Part1. The crew considered wrong visual reference as runway centreline and maneuvered the aircraft to the left of the Runway 09 (at Bengaluru airport). The first officer did not monitor flight path deviation in the cockpit instruments,” the DGCA order said.
The DGCA had issued show cause notice to both Commander and the co-pilot of the flight asking them to submit explanation on the lapses.
“Both of them accepted their mistake in writing,” the the airline regulator said.