Runway breach: 2 IndiGo pilots lose licence

New Delhi: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday suspended license of two Indigo pilots for runway incursion at the Delhi airport on June 2, this year. The plane was on its way to Udaipur from Delhi.

During the inquiry, the pilot in command had accepted his lapses and explained that this happened due to a brief distraction by the movement of another aircraft on the adjacent runway.

During the investigations, the DGCA found that the two pilots did not follow the “Hold at Holding Point RWY 10” (Runway 10) instructions from the Air Traffic Control.

“The plane breached RWY Holding Point RWY 10 and reached near active runway while landing aircraft 6E-6683 had already crossed the threshold of the active RWY10,” the DGCA said in its report.

It added that the crew of Indigo 6E-2746 did not pay attention to taxiway markings and applied brakes when they saw the other landing aircraft close to runway.

While noting that the crew jeopardised the safety of the passengers and the aircraft, the DGCA said that the act of pilots was in violation of its circular that “flight crews should use a continuous loop process for actively monitoring and updating their progress and location during taxi. This includes knowing the aircraft’s present location and mentally calculating the next location on the route that will require increased attention.”

Meanwhile, the director general of civil aviation has decided to ground 23 Boeing 737 planes flying in India to check for any cracks in the body frame.

The DGCA move comes after cracks were detected on some Boeing 737 NG (New Generation) aircraft in other countries following which the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) of the United States announced that inspection is needed for them.