Classic Flaw

An ageing aircraft is putting lives of passengers and crew at risk

- Soumik Dey

An ageing Airbus A320 recently landed Air India passengers and pilots in trouble. On February 11, an A320-231 Classic, a pre-liberalisation era procurement of Air India, failed to take off and had to make precautionary landing twice—in Mumbai and Jodhpur—as its landing gear would not retract. The reason cited was technical malfunction. In Jaipur, the aircraft developed a snag again, and it has been stuck there for more than a month now. The Mumbai- Jodhpur-Jaipur flight had 168 passengers on board.

On February 14, 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 crashed at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru and caught fire, killing 90 passengers and four crew members. Though the accident report cited pilot error, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) claimed the A320-231 had flaws. “The pilots on board were experienced hands,” said T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of ICPA. “They had earlier faced issues with the equipment and during landing, flight controls did not react the way they should have. Our views were later incorporated by Airbus and several changes were brought about in flight control mechanisms.”

Both the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) and ICPA had subsequently issued statements refusing to fly the aircraft. “If I recall correctly, our protest was about the take-off and landing operations of the A320 Classics. The hydraulic system was prone to failure. This causes malfunction in retraction of the entire undercarriage assembly and the landing gear. It is dangerous to attempt touchdown like that,” said