15th February, 2020
A DGCA official has revealed that an Air India aircraft’s fuselage was damaged on Saturday when its pilot decided to immediately lift the plane to avoid hitting a person and a jeep that had suddenly come on the Pune airport runway during takeoff.
The incident was reported to have occurred when the A321 aircraft of the national carrier took off from Pune airport on Saturday morning.
However, despite the incident, it landed at the Delhi airport safely, Indianaexpress reported.
“During take-off roll, while at 120 knots speed, crew saw a jeep and a person on the runway, to avoid conflict they did early rotation. The aircraft has safely landed at Delhi,” the official of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated.
An Air India spokesperson also disclosed that “The A321 aircraft that was scheduled to operate AI 825 to Srinagar was observed to have certain marks towards the empennage area. This aircraft had arrived from Pune on AI 852.
“The aircraft has been withdrawn for detailed investigation. The CVR and SSFDR (solid state flight data recorder) readouts would be carried out and the findings shared appropriately.”
Read original at Indianexpress.com