It’s a wonder that an Air India Express Boeing B737, which hit a very low airport perimeter wall at Tiruchy while taking off, flew on to Dubai with the pilots blissfully unaware of what had occurred. The plane was said to have rocked on impact, but the shaking was brushed off as minor, and panic set in among the 136 passengers only when the Dubai ATC refused to let the plane land and it had to be rerouted to Mumbai. Confident that all systems were “go” on board, the experienced pilots, with over 3,000 flying hours each, saw no reason to change course. They have been derostered, and an inquiry is on. But that’s what we hear after every aviation scare. What the investigation must clearly establish is whether it was overloading of aircraft or pilot failure in reading the takeoff point.
Tiruchy’s incident is the opposite of what happened to the AI flight on September 11 when all systems failed and the pilots had to land blind in Newark in the most testing conditions of low visibility, which makes us wonder what modern fly-by-wire aviation is all about. Would it be too much to seek positioning of cameras on the wings or fuselage to check underbelly, landing gear and wheel and tyre conditions? An aircraft with a hole in the underbelly can still make it and we often hear of safe landings even after engine failure events. Modern aviation is so safe the odds of fatality in a crash have lengthened considerably since the Wright Brothers showed us how to fly. An eventful AI flight reminds us there’s work to be done to make flying even safer.
