A Jetlite Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SJH performing flight S2-320 from Kolkata to New Delhi with 140 persons on board, was forced to make three landing attempts due to weather and a fault Instrument Landing System at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The flight was on approach to New Delhi's runway 29, when a thunderstorm went into its final approach and landing path. The crew aborted the landing and requested for a different runway.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) vectored the aircraft for an ILS approach to runway 11 (the opposite side of runway 29). However, when the crew attempted to intercept the ILS localizer on runway 11, the ILS was found to be malfunctioning.

Air Traffic Control then instructed the pilots to swing over to runway 10. However, while the airplane manoeuvred to align with runway 10, Air Traffic Control reported that the ILS on runway 11 was now working.

The airplane finally landed on runway 11 on the third approach 20 minutes after the first approach attempt.

JetLite refused to answer my queries if they have lodged any complaint or protest about the malfunctions with either the Airports Authority of India (AAI) whose controllers operate the ATC or with the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). They issued me this statement

"Due to weather detected on the aircraft weather radar S2 320 requested a runway change from R/W 29 to R/W 11. While the aircraft was being vectored for an approach to R/W 11, non-availability of the ILS (Instrument Landing System) of R/W 11 necessitated the change of the approach to R/W10. However, during the approach to R/W 10 a downgrade of the R/W10 ILS and subsequent availability of R/W 11 ILS resulted in the approach and landing being made on R/W 11. The changes in the approaches did not result in any go-arounds."

METARS:
VIDP 291300Z 00000KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN090 23/19 Q1010 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291230Z 18005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 23/19 Q1009 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291200Z 18006KT 3500 -DZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 23/18 Q1009 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291100Z 18005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 26/17 Q1009 NOSIG
VIDP 291030Z 20005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 26/17 Q1009 NOSIG
VIDP 290930Z 31005KT 2800 TS SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/17 Q1010 BECMG 3000
VIDP 290900Z 28003KT 2800 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 28/17 Q1010 NOSIG
VIDP 290830Z 01005KT 2600 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 28/17 Q1010 NOSIG
VIDP 290730Z 32005KT 2800 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/18 Q1010 BECMG 3000
VIDP 290700Z 34005KT 2800 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/18 Q1011 NOSIG

Thanks to Simon Hradecky at Aviation Herald for the tip.

I had gone to Bengaluru International Airport for a meeting, and took my camera along. Got some great shots of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways at the field. Hope you enjoy. Visit my photo album on Flickr.

VT-VJK (the first KFA A330), performing flight IT2 coming in from London Heathrow. Sorry about the heat haze. The flight comes in the afternoon.


VT-VJN performing flight IT001 takes off for its ten hour trip to London.


Observe the lack of winglets on this Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 Next Generation


A nice northerly wind ensured all the planes showed me their belly while taking-off


One of Kingfisher's newer ATR72-500s (model AT72-212A)



I wonder who came or departed on this Cessna 525B Citation Jet 3?
Please do leave a comment, and spread the word.

The Dutch investigation board headed by Pieter van Vollenhoven, examining the crash of the Boeing 737-800 Turkish Airlines flight TK1951 at Amsterdam Schiphol last week, released its preliminary report.

Simply put it was a combination of a faulty instrument, a breakdown in "artificial intelligence" (AI) of the plane, pilot error, and poor weather.

The instruments and "artificial intelligence"
The plane had a faulty radio altimeter (radalt). At 1,950ft altitude, one of the two radalts suddenly gave a wrong reading which fooled the autopilot into thinking the plane was just few feet above the runway. Since the auto-throttle was also engaged, which is a perfectly normal procedure, the autopilot reduced the engines thrust to 'retard' or 'idle' mode as we normally experience just before touchdown, except this was 2,000 ft up in the air. Naturally the plane started slowing down.

Distracted pilots
In the right seat the co-pilot was receiving training in making a landing by automatic pilot. The investigators say that too much time was spent exchanging information between the instructor and the trainee, and not enough was spent checking the actual readings which would have alerted the crew to the problem in time to override the automatic pilot.

Thick fog and low cloud may also have played a part in their failure to realise their actual height.

The plane slowed down in to a stall, which is when the alarms sounded. The pilots tried to spool the engines back up, but it was too late.

Turkish Airlines' maintenance conflict
Another fact has arisen. Two weeks ago, a serious conflict arose between the union representing maintenance workers and the management of Turkish Airlines. The union warned the management of serious shortcomings in the maintenance system, including inadequate staff to cope with the rapid growth of the airline fleet, which could lead to safety risks in the air.

Sharing the blame
The investigators have concluded that blame for the accident must be shared between Turkish Airlines THY, the pilots, and the manufacturer, Boeing. The involvement of human error means that there will be legal repercussions, civil and possibly criminal, but then the pilots have already paid the ultimate price.



Is time to return to the basics ?
For long airplane manufacturers have tried to reduce the workload on pilots by automating tasks. One could say, they are trying to design the pilot out of the cockpit. The pilots have become increasingly dependent on the computers and their AI. It has become a vicious cycle to the point, many pilots now feel they are flying a computer not a plane.

Since the second radalt was working fine, one would naturally pose the question, why did Boeing build in to their AI some failsafe when the two radalts are giving conflicting information? Should Boeing not have put more thought in to this situation? A simple "whoop whoop" alarm that alerts pilots especially in this situation of conflicting instrument information before putting the engines in to idle?

Across the blogosphere I have seen many Boeing fans criticising the AI on the Airbus "Fly By Wire" system, and citing the June 26, 1988 crash of an Air France Airbus A320 as AI gone haywire.

It appears, that Boeing's AI is not much smarter either. Is it time for both these plane manufacturers to return towards the basics and give more control to the pilots? Machines are fallible, but it is humans who pay the price.

Share your thoughts via a comment.

In the mean while, Turkish Airlines has made an offer of compensation. Full details are in this release.

At the start of this month, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair announced it has invited proposals from both its sole vendor till date, Boeing, and competitor Airbus for 200 to 300 new single-aisle aircraft in the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 category, for delivery between 2012 and 2017.

I had a chance to interact with senior Airbus executives during the recently concluded Aero India show in Bangalore, about the RFP from Ryanair. I was told that Airbus had an "unpleasant history" with the carrier, and that they were least interested in pursuing any deal.

The angst of Airbus can be felt in the words of Airbus chief commercial officer John Leahy, “We don’t plan a sales campaign with Ryanair, which would be very expensive and very time consuming,”.

This despite production cutbacks recently announced at the European plane maker.

Ryanair has a known history of ordering extensive capacity at discount prices and then re-negotiating outstanding orders for even lower prices than originally agreed upon.

Going by statistic compiled by Aviation International News, since 1998, if we count the order announcements between Boeing and Ryanair it adds up to almost 540, whereas in reality, Ryanair has placed firm orders for 338 airplanes.

Its now over to Boeing.

A Turkish Airlines (THY) Boeing 737-800 registration TC-JGE performing flight TK1951 crashed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at 10:30 local (09:30Z)

The plane carrying 135 passengers on a flight from Istanbul, broke in to three parts when attempting to land on Runway 36L near motorway A9.

There is a massive presence of emergency vehicles and crew on the scene, and there are reports of survivors. There are conflicting reports of casualties. Turkish Airlines officials claim no casualities.



All flights at Schipol have been suspended or cancelled.

Dutch newspaper AD has published this photo of the crash.
TC-JGE, pictured below at Schipol was delivered by Boeing on March 27, 2002. Construction number CN29789. The plane named Tekirdag after the city in Thrace in Turkey, was powered by two CFM56-7B26 engines and had a capacity of 165 passengers.

METAR about accident time:
250925Z 20010KT 4500 BR SCT007 BKN008 OVC010 04/03 Q1027 TEMPO 2500=

Weather. Wind 200 deg/10 kts, visibity 4500m in mist, scattered clouds 700 ft.,broken clouds 800 ft, overcast 1,000 ft,temp. 4 deg. C, barometric pressure 1027QnH.

Some more pictures :


Update 1 - 18:00GMT

Video from Reuters

As per officials 84 people were taken to hospitals, including 25 who were severely hurt. Six in critical condition. Nine fatalities have been confirmed. The pilot and co-pilot are among the dead.

The bodies of three crew members in the cockpit are still in the plane's wreckage, as per investigators who need to complete their investigations before taking apart the cockpit.

The passenger count has been revised to 134 which includes, rather ironically, four employees of the plane manufacturer, Boeing.

This is the second crash of a plane just near the runway, recently. The previous one being the crash of a British Airways Boeing 777 at Heathrow.

Update 2 - 01:00GMT 26-Feb-09

Turkish Airlines issued the following statement

25.02.2009
Turkish Airlines regrets to confirm that its flight Number TK 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam the capital of The Netherlands was involved in an accident today near the Amsterdam Airport.

The aircraft, a B737-800 was during the landing when the accident occurred, at around 10:30 a.m. local time.

At this time, after the search and rescue operations, we have 9 casualties, and 50 passengers were injured. Turkish Airlines staff has been doing everything possible to assist the emergency services and local authorities.

There were 127 passengers and 7 crew members on board Flight Number TK 1951 and we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for this flight.

Turkish Airlines has established a passenger information centre, and a toll-free number is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board Flight Number TK 1951. The phone number is: 0800 219 80 35. For those who are calling from outside Turkey, please call + 90 212 465 21 60.

Turkish Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available. Updated information will also be posted on the Turkish Airlines’ website, at www.thy.com

Update 3 - 17:00GMT 26-Feb-09

Turkish Airlines refutes speculation on reasons for crash.

The last few days may have brought bad news to both Boeing and Airbus in the form of order cancellations, which have put both manufacturers in an unenviable situation of being negative on their net order book for 2009.

They can take heart in the procurement actions of India's national carrier Air India, which will be taking delivery of ordered aircraft.. By September end, Air India, would add 13 aircraft to its existing 154.

On Friday the low cost subsidiary Air India Express inducted another Boeing 737-800 aircraft increasing its fleet size to 21 aircraft. The new aircraft inducted has ‘shikara on the Dal Lake in Kashmir’ on one side of the tail and an ‘image of a large expanse of the Rajasthan Desert’ on the other side. The tail designs are an innovative and novel feature of the Air India Express fleet. Each of the aircraft showcases the picturesque landscapes, monuments, birds, animals, handicraft and dances of India on both sides of the tail.

The airline will launch it’s once a week flight Srinagar to Dubai from February 14, 2009. The airline is expected to increase frequency on the Chennai-Trichy-Dubai route from three flights a week to seven flights a week, on the Chennai-Hyderabad-Dubai route from three to four flights a week, and on the Trichy-Kuala Lumpur sector from three to six flights a week.

On Monday, Air India will take delivery of three Airbus A321-200s which will be deployed on domestic routes in India.

This will be followed by three Airbus A319-100s in March.


The national carrier will also add three B777-200LRs and four B777-300ERs to its fleet between June and September, to be used for international operations.


Air India has the largest number of fixed assets in the Indian aviation industry. It has placed orders for 111 new aircraft, estimated at Rs 40,000 crore ($8.3 billion), and these will be delivered in three years. The airline is expected to post losses of Rs 3,000 crore ($625 million) in the current fiscal, but expects an equity infusion of Rs. 2,000 crore ($417 million) by the Government of India, by March.

JetLite Boeing 737-300
A JetLite Boeing 737-800 performing flight S2-361 from Kolkata to Guwahati, India, returned to Kolkata airport, after the crew declared an emergency after the left hand engine caught fire shortly after take-off at 0629 local 0059 GMT, January 17, 2009.

The crew shut the engine down, activated fire extinguisher, and stopped the fire. The plane landed 0648 local.


The entire incident was handled in such a smooth and practised manner, that emergency services attending the aircraft did not need to jump in to action. All 38 passengers and 8 crew disembarked normally. Kudos to the JetLite crew.

The flight was cancelled, the passengers were rebooked onto another flight four hours later.

The cause of the engine fire has not yet been determined.

Update 1 - January 18, 2009

Similar to the US Airways A320 crash in New York, a bird hit has been held responsible for the engine failure.

A kite was sucked in to the left side engine before the aircraft reached an altitude of 500ft AGL. Smoke starting billowing from the engine. An air traffic controller alerts the flight crew, who must have also received in-flight alarms by that time. With alacrity, the crew led by Captain Ajay Keri, goes through the emergency procedures, extinguishes the fire, turns the aircraft around, and lands.

From news photos, the aircraft appears to be VT-SJI. Construction Number: 34399, Line Number: 2030, Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-89P; Engines 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B24, First Flight: August 16, 2006, delivered to Air Sahara: August 24, 2006. Air Sahara was acquired by Jet Airways and renamed JetLite.

On Friday, January 16, 2009, in a very similar incident occurred halfway across the world.

An Interjet Airbus A320-200, flight 4O-809 from Guadalajara to San Jose Cabo, Mexico, with 106 passengers, struck a vulture with its left engine while departing from Guadalajara forcing the crew to shut the engine down and return to Guadalajara. The airplane landed safely about 20 minutes after lift-off.

Be it geese in New York, kites in Kolkata, or vultures in Guadalajara, for the third time in this incident laden week-end, pilots across three countries and three airlines, have calmly done what they repeatedly train for, and completed their primary duty, by safely bringing back the people in their charge.

Kudos.

The Government of India has ordered eight Boeing P-8I long range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft.

At $2.1 billion this will be the biggest-ever defence deal of India with United States, double of the $962-million contract signed with US for six C-130J `Super Hercules' aircraft for use by Indian special forces, last year.

The Boeing P-8A Poseidon is a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft first developed for the US Navy, as a replacement to the ageing P3C Orion, on the successful Boeing 737 airframe.

The P-8I has been customised for India, and the platform's electronics are crucially required in plugging the huge gaps in the Indian Navy's maritime monitoring and surveillance capabilities. The P-8I will also be armed with the deadly, anti-ship, Harpoon missiles, torpedoes and depth bombs to give them potent anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability.

The P-8I's are expected to "enhance interoperability" between the Indian and US navies, and is a critical step in the on-going efforts of greater cooperation and growth strategic embrace between the two nations.

The actual signing took place on January 1, with the Indian defence ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defence systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall signing the contract

India will get the first P-8I within 4 years, i.e. end-2012 or early-2013, the rest following in a phased manner by 2015. The contract also provides an option for India to order four to eight more such planes.

While the deal has been long in the making, the recent 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, have provided a boost to the closure. Both the Navy and the Coast Guard were criticised for not being able to pre-empt the attacks, and protection of the long Indian coast line has suddenly become a major priority of the Government.

The P-8I will replace the ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian Tupolev-142Ms of the Indian Navy. Presently, the Navy uses the TU-142Ms, IL-38SDs and Dorniers for surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean region.

The Navy is also shopping for six new medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft valued at Rs. 1,600 crore ($ 350 million), to achieve its aim of an effective three-tier surveillance grid in the entire Indian Ocean.

For innermost layer (up to 350 km) surveillance, the Navy is procuring two more Israeli Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), with three ground control stations and two ship control stations, for Rs 386 crore after successfully deploying eight Searcher-II and four Heron UAVs. A joint Indian-Israeli Rs. 1,186 crore effort is on, for developing rotary-wing UAVs for use from warships.

In a second incident involving a commercial jet mishap at a major airport in just about twelve hours, as per Reuters, a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 plane went off the runway and caught fire at Denver International Airport at 18:18 December 20, (01:18 GMT December 21).

Less than 12 hours earlier, at 13:51 GMT, December 20, a Gulf Air Airbus 321 plane caught fire at Mumbai airport.

None of the injuries at Denver were life-threatening, but the injured passengers were taken to area hospitals, as per DIA spokesperson, Kim Day at a news conference, but CBS Denver is reporting one critical injury.

As in Mumbai, Denver airport reported significant flight delays after the crash, as some runways were shut down.

There were 112 passengers and crew on flight CO 1404, which was taking off Denver International Airport for Houston.

It wasn't immediately known why the plane crashed, but the right side of the plane caught fire after it landed in a ravine between two runways on the west side of the airfield. Denver assistant fire chief Steve Garrod said the plane "crashed, caught fire" and flames extended into the cabin. He said the right wing was cracked, as was the fuselage.

Despite freezing temperatures, officials felt "ice was not a factor".