DGCA grounds six pilots of three airlines

Six pilots of Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir and Air India have been de-rostered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation after they violated guidelines while landing on a short runway at Mumbai airport under rainy conditions. The DGCA also issued notices to the three airlines on the matter asking them to explain why the strict guidelines were not followed by their aircraft while operating on a wet and short runway which was in operation at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday afternoon, official sources said in  Delhi.

The DGCA has de-rostered in all six pilots of three operators – Kingfisher, Go Air and NACIL, which had operated flights on Tuesday in wet runway conditions, they said. The sources said the regulatory body issued show-cause notices to these airlines for alleged violations of its directions regarding wet runway operations. The stern action by the DGCA came after a Kingfisher aircraft skidded off the runway on Tuesday evening. 

An ATR 72-212A turbo-prop aircraft of Kingfisher airlines operating a scheduled flight IT-4124 on the Bhavnagar-Mumbai sector yesterday had skidded off the runway resulting in the plane getting damaged. Six passengers and one crew member recieved minor injuries, who were released after administering first-aid.
      
The Mumbai airport is undertaking the full re-construction of Runway 14/32, including the overlay of the cross-runway inter-section, between October 1 till January 31. For this purpose, Runway 27

is available for operations till March next year for six hours every Tuesday and only short runway operations are permitted. The sources said these short runway operations were being permitted after undertaking full safety assessment and operational requirements in consultation with all airlines,
the Airports Authority of India, MIAL and other stakeholders.

The DGCA has informed them that during the closure period on Tuesdays, a total of 84 movements are involved. These operations at MIAL on short runway 27A are continuously being reviewed in DGCA before and after the operations. Keeping in view the inputs received, DGCA issued strict directions to all airlines for strict compliance when using Runway 27A on Tuesday, 10 November, 2009 onwards.

The directions include that the commander of an aircraft should be a Training Captain (Instructor) and the second one should have minimum 300 hours of flying experience on the particular aircraft type. No assisted take-off and landing would be permitted and no operation would take place when the runway surface is wet.