Plane nearly ran out of fuel after pilots forgot to bring up landing gear

[complexintentions]

"I thought something sounded different".

If you haven't flown the sub-continent, this may seem unbelievable. If you have - just another day.

India A320 at Kolkata and Nagpur on Jul 22nd 2017, "inexplicable" performance degradation.

By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Jul 25th 2017 19:35Z, last updated Tuesday, Jul 25th 2017 19:37Z

An Air India Airbus A320-200, registration VT-EXE performing flight AI-676 from Kolkata to Mumbai (India), was climbing out of Kolkata, however achieved an unuusally poor climb rate, was not able to accelerate to normal cruise speeds and levelled off at FL200 after a continous climb for about 30 minutes. The aircraft subsequently attempted to continue the climb but could not climb above FL240. The crew continued the flight at FL240 and about 310knots over ground for another about 45 minutes then needed to divert to Nagpur (India) due to running low on fuel. While on final approach to Nagpur, when the crew was about to lower the gear, the crew discovered the landing gear had remained extended all the flight. The aircraft landed safely in Nagpur, about 530nm west of Kolkata, about 2.5 hours after departure from Kolkata.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Nagpur for about 2 hours, then departed again, achieved normal climb performance, climbed to cruise level FL360 and landed safely in Mumbai with a delay of 3:45 hours.

On Jul 25th 2017 the airline reported both pilots were de-rostered due to not retracting the landing gear after departure from Kolkata and continuing to fly without detecting that the landing gear was still extended despite the unusually poor performance. The occurrence is being investigated by the airline.

AvHerald Link to Story

[North Shore]

Rote learning, paint-by-numbers, and then missing a line on the checklist?

[complexintentions]

You're too kind. Certainly we've all missed a line on a checklist. And sure I've been slow to raise the gear, say on an unexpected go-around, or in the sim with much going on. It happens.

But flying for over five hundred miles wondering why it won't climb and we're burning fuel at a horrendous rate and there's this really loud noise I don't recall being there and say, are those three green lights usually on in cruise?

Uh, no.

Frankly my only surprise is that they managed to cheat Darwin by not running the tanks dry and unceremoniously crashing.

[Inverted2]

Hope these guys don't bid long haul where you might not have an airport nearby.

[YYZSaabGuy]

Hope these guys don't bid long haul where you might not have an airport nearby.

Or, if they must bid long haul, let it be to anywhere other than Canadian airspace.

[Dim]

Is there a gear speed on a 320?

[goingnowherefast]

That was my first question. Also shouldn't take 2 hours to refuel and go again. Maybe gear overspeed inspection?

[ZBBYLW]

Is there a gear speed on a 320?

Vle is 280 and I believe mach .67.. i always laughed that they had a mach speed.. figured it would be for a positioning flight not this!

[Eric Janson]

There seem to be a lot of people who don't believe this happened.


https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 6/#e2fac87

It certainly did.

As Complex said - it's India. You have to have flown there to understand the complete mayhem that passes for Aviation.

[Old fella]

There seem to be a lot of people who don't believe this happened.


https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 6/#e2fac87

It certainly did.

As Complex said - it's India. You have to have flown there to understand the complete mayhem that passes for Aviation.

Yes, as a person who never worked in the airline industry and no international experience of any kind, I would definitely find this incident hard to believe. However I do acknowledge your expertise and experience in that this situation did really go down as advertised. Could it be said that this incident is the product of two individuals who really shouldn't be upfront at the controls of a commercial airliner not the overall situation in India itself. Air India is a flagship carrier who has been applying it's trade internationally to all points for some decades, kinda seems unbecoming of such as flagrant disregard of specific aircraft knowledge.

PS. I was offered an ICAO secondment to Indonesia and India 15 yrs ago but declined the offers as I didn't see myself suitable to those areas of the world, although money and working conditions were attractive.

[phillyfan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/ ... -low-fuel/


The faster we get those self flying planes the better.

[cgzro]

in France the Airbus engineers are no doubt having fun because this sounds like a brand new problem that they can look to automate away as opposed to all the repetitious and non creative failures of late.

[Gannet167]

Aww darn. I hate it when I forget to raise the gear.

[garfield]

Cracker jack licenses I hope...

[FICU]

Didn't realize the bus is so quiet with the gear extended in cruise... surprised none of the cabin crew or the front end crew noticed the noise....

[rigpiggy]

Anybody remember the pwa or cp 737 that landed in terrace with same issue, 30 odd yrs back. Use yer checklist

[Liftdump]

The checklist does no good at all when the gear pins are left in.

[GRK2]

Anybody remember the pwa or cp 737 that landed in terrace with same issue, 30 odd yrs back. Use yer checklist

Certainly do! I also recall the two in question tried to courier the gear pins back to the original departure point in an attempt to cover their tracks...not the first attempted cover up by the Captain in question, he had problems, but enough was enough...it was a PWA crew. Fired...

[Illya Kuryakin]

The checklist does no good at all when the gear pins are left in.

Okay, I've done this. C'mon, hands up...who else has? Flew YTS to YMO in a very SLOW Racer.
Illya

[Eric Janson]

Could it be said that this incident is the product of two individuals who really shouldn't be upfront at the controls of a commercial airliner not the overall situation in India itself. Air India is a flagship carrier who has been applying it's trade internationally to all points for some decades, kinda seems unbecoming of such as flagrant disregard of specific aircraft knowledge.

PS. I was offered an ICAO secondment to Indonesia and India 15 yrs ago but declined the offers as I didn't see myself suitable to those areas of the world, although money and working conditions were attractive.

Good move declining Indonesia - no safety culture whatsoever. Their accident record speaks for itself.

As for India you are dealing with a totally different culture and you cannot think in Western terms.

Corruption is normal as is "influencing" to get jobs especially at places like Air India. There's a whole group of people running around with forged hours and fake licences - a few have been prosecuted and the rest has been swept under the rug.

With the right connection you are immune from prosecution and any kind of accountability.

This is just another in a long list of accidents/incidents related to their way of doing things.

The only thing that surprises me is that they don't have more accidents.