AI plane suffers tail strike at Bengaluru airport
A Delhi-Bengaluru Air India flight, with 181 people on board, was grounded after it experienced a tail strike during landing at the Bengaluru airport on Thursday morning. The airline’s narrow-body A321 aircraft was operating the flight AI2651 from Delhi to Bengaluru.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has begun its investigation into the matter. “The operating pilots have been off rostered pending investigation,” DGCA sources said.
An Air India spokesperson said the plane “experienced a tail-strike during landing”. The aircraft landed safely, and all passengers and crew disembarked normally, the spokesperson said. Due to the grounding of the aircraft, the return flight AI2652 from Bengaluru to Delhi has been cancelled.
A source said the plane experienced “wake turbulence” when it was close to land, following which the pilot decided to perform a go around manoeuvre. During the manoeuvre, there was a tail strike, the source added.
The “wake turbulence” was caused due to the take-off of a wide-body aircraft in the vicinity, the source said. Specific details about the wide-body plane could not be ascertained. Wake turbulence is the disturbed, chaotic air trailing behind an aircraft. It is the disturbance generated by an aircraft that can affect encountering aircraft due to the strength, duration, and direction of the vortices.
The source said there were 181 passengers onboard the aircraft that operated the flight AI2651.
The Air India spokesperson said the plane has been grounded for detailed inspection and the incident will be investigated in accordance with established procedures, in coordination with the relevant regulatory authorities.
“As a result, the return flight AI2652 from Bengaluru to Delhi has been cancelled. Alternative arrangements are being made to accommodate affected passengers at the earliest.
“Our ground teams in Bengaluru are providing all necessary assistance,” the spokesperson said and regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers.
Information from flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed the flight was operated with an A321 aircraft.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website, “wake turbulence” is a function of an aircraft producing lift, resulting in the formation of two counter-rotating vortices trailing behind the aircraft.
Wake turbulence from the generating aircraft can affect encountering aircraft due to the strength, duration, and direction of the vortices, as per the website.
