Lekha Agarwal for NewsLines
 
Mumbai, November 11: Twice on Saturday, and in a span of less than seven hours, an Alliance Air Boeing 737-2A8 was called back to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport due to a “technical snag”.

While Alliance Air, a fully owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, did not confirm the nature of the snag, Newsline has learnt that on both occasions the fault was the same— air speed indicator failure, meaning the pilot doesn’t know what speed the aircraft is flying at.

In aviation parlance, this is a “no-go snag”, which means the aircraft cannot proceed and must land immediately. “Although there are two other alternate indicators—one on the co-pilot’s side, and one in the centre panel—it’s a no-go snag if any one of the three indicators malfunction. It could jeopardise flight safety, it’s that critical,”’ said an airline engineer.

In the first instance, the aircraft had a rejected take-off around 8:40 am. “The plane was going full throttle on the runway, when there was a sudden jerk and it stopped,” said Kripa Raman (42), a passenger on the flight (CD 7561) headed to Vizag via Hyderabad.

Strangely, the same aircraft was later scheduled for a flight (CD 7179) to Mangalore. This time, it took off at 2:52 pm. “However, within minutes of being airborne, there was an air speed indicator failure on the commander’s panel. The plane then made a precautionary landing around 3:30 pm,” said an airline source.

“It was only after the snag was rectified and the aircraft cleared by the engineers that the aircraft was scheduled for the Mangalore flight,” said K Bharati, Deputy General Manager (Public Relations), Indian Airlines. The aircraft has been grounded for repairs.

Meanwhile, the 51 passengers travelling to Hyderabad were accommodated on an Indian Airlines flight at 10:15 am, while the 64 Vizag-bound passengers were put on another Alliance Air flight at 12:30 pm. Also, most of the 83 passengers on the second flight were accommodated in hotels.

The aircraft in question is over 26 years old, and has been with the national carrier since 1982. In fact, Alliance Air has 11 Boeing 737s with an average age of 25 years.