NEW DELHI: The sudden altitude loss in the Air India flight from Delhi to Phuket on August 4—which caused injuries to 17 people on board—was due to a major technical fault and the timely action by the pilots averted a major tragedy, it is learnt.
While atmospheric weather conditions were initially blamed for the mishap, new information indicates that there were issues with the aircraft.
The statement issued by Air India initially attributed the incident to “brief in-flight turbulence resulting in momentary change in altitude”. Another statement issued hours later changed it to “sudden loss of altitude during cruise”, dropping the word ‘turbulence’.
Captain Sam Thomas, president, Airline Pilot Association of India, said the flight had triple hydraulic systems failure. “The A320 plane was entering Jharsuguda in Odisha around 10.30 pm when the Pilot-in-Command realised the aircraft had a triple hydraulic systems failure.
These systems take care of flight controls and general functioning of the plane. The Flight Captain immediately asked the co-pilot to take the nose down. This took the aircraft down by 300 feet.
The dip in altitude creates a negative G and that only caused the passengers to be thrown around. This quick action by the cockpit crew is responsible for saving countless lives on board.”
Explaining the technical aspects, he added: “An Airbus A320 has three hydraulic reservoirs located in the belly of the aircraft. Pipes and steel tubes running from them connect them with the systems in the control surfaces of the plane.”
Failure of all three is a rare occurrence, he said. “In such situations, the cockpit crew may take the plane down by even up to 800 feet to stabilise it,” he explained.
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