A JetLite flight to Bangalore was delayed by 45 minutes and boarding on several flights had to be suspended for 10 minutes on Sunday evening after a passenger Saptarishi Basu, complained that his laptop had gone missing from the security hold.

Around 5 pm, Basu, who was to board the JetLite flight to Bangalore, went in for security check. On completion of his check, he found his laptop missing on the delivery side of the X-ray machine. He immediately lodged a complaint with the nearby CISF official.

5 pm is a peak travel hour, and there were over 400 passengers departing to Chennai and Delhi undergoing security checks. The CISF suspended all boardings, and started checking the CCTV footage to find the missing laptop. S.B. Hari, a Chennai bound SpiceJet passenger had mistakenly picked up Basu's laptop, thinking it as his own, since both passengers carried the same model.

The JetLite flight took off 45 minutes behind schedule. All other flights, for which boarding had been suspended, took off on time. Basu though, was not on the JetLite flight, since he had to complete formalities. He was accommodated on an Air India flight leaving at 7.55 pm.

This does raise some interesting questions to which I request comments.

• How do you protect and identify your laptop either during your travels on in public areas ?
• JetLite is a low cost carrier, and Air India a full service one. Who paid for the difference in fare ? If Basu or any of the airlines did, is it not unfair ? After all, it is Hari who picked up the wrong laptop. Should he not pay for the delays ?
  

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.

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Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose airport has been shut down by heavy fog which has reduced visibility to less than 100 meters.

No flight has been able to land for the last 12 hours, and there have been no departures since this morning.

This incident reported by the Times of India Kolkata takes the cake for serious goof-ups.

Monday December 1, 2008 Time: 14:44 local (0914 Zulu). SpiceJet Bagdogra-Kolkata flight SG 324 is approaching Kolkata airport for landing. The pilot radios the air traffic controller on duty for clearance. The controller asks the pilot to align the aircraft to land on the secondary runway: "Confirm runway 19R in sight?" [19R means runway 19 Right] The pilot checks the instrument panel and replies he's in position: "Affirm (yes)." The controller gives the all clear: "Clear to land runway 19R"

Two minutes later, the pilot touched down and all hell broke loose.

Image courtesy The Telegraph
Instead of the secondary runway, the pilot had inexplicably landed on the primary runway that was shut for repairs.

"Roger Stop! Danger ahead, danger ahead," the controller screamed to the pilot. Barely 8,000 ft away from the touchdown point, 25 labourers stood dumbfounded in horror for a second and then began running helter skelter. A Boeing 737-800 aircraft was hurtling towards them at 250 kmph.

Meanwhile, realizing the mistake, the pilot put the engine on reverse thrust and applied the brakes and prayed that the aircraft stopped before disaster struck. After what seemed an eternity, but was actually a few seconds, the plane jerked to a halt 3,100 ft from the construction materials and machines.

Inside the aircraft, the 139 passengers felt the violent jerk and were flung ahead. But the restraining safety belt averted any injury. Little did they know that they had been yards away from a major mishap.

It was the second close shave for the airline in less than two years. On June 13 last year, Jammu-Delhi SpiceJet flight SG 851 carrying 171 passengers had similarly landed on the wrong runway in Delhi. Luckily, there were no men or machines on the landing strip then. Probe into the incident showed that the pilot did not use the instrument landing system but had opted for visual approach that led to the error.

Why the error was repeated in Kolkata on Monday is baffling as a notice had been issued to airmen that the primary runway would be shut from 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm. "A NOTAM (Notice To Air Men) was in place. An error should not have occurred," a senior captain said.

The usual protocol for the ATC is to cease voice messages after giving final landing clearance till 30 seconds after touchdown for the pilot to function without a lapse in concentration. But on Monday, the controller realized that 30 seconds could prove too costly and radioed the SOS message barely 12 seconds after touchdown.

"The air traffic controller showed great presence of mind and saved the day," said an airport official.

Incidentally, the controller realised the pilot's mistake just prior to touchdown. But it was too late to ask him to abort landing. "He (the controller) noticed the error when the aircraft was barely 50 ft away from the threshold or touchdown point of the primary runway. Asking the pilot to turn around from such short distance would have been extremely risky," an ATC official explained.

Aviation experts said Boeing 737-800 aircraft can come to a halt within 2,500 ft from touchdown point, but pilots use the runway length to slow down the aircraft gradually. "When using the primary runway, we slow down a Boeing 737-800 at a distance of 6,000 ft before entering the taxiway C," said the pilot.

After the SpiceJet aircraft halted, maintenance equipment were removed from the section of the runway to allow the aircraft to exit it through taxiway C. "Despite the scare, the airport staff acted promptly and the aircraft was able to move out of the runway in 10 minutes. There were no major delays due to this incident," said Kolkata Airport general manager (operations) Mahesh Kaul.

The JetLite flight to Delhi departed at 2.50 pm as scheduled using the secondary runway even as the staff were evacuating machinery from the primary runway for the SpiceJet plane to exit.

Following the incident, the director general of civil aviation has initiated an inquiry. Though prima facie evidence points to pilot error, the communication between the ATC and the cockpit that is recorded at both ends will be reviewed. Both the pilot and the co-pilot involved in the incident have been de-rostered .

SpiceJet chief executive officer Sanjay Agarwal said the airline was looking into the incident seriously. "The matter is being thoroughly investigated. We will certainly get to the bottom of this and take all necessary steps to prevent it from happening in the future," he said.

More bad news on the aviation front. CNN-IBN reports that British Airways will suspend its flights between Kolkata, Dhaka and London from March 28 next year as it finds the route unprofitable, an airline officer said here Friday.

"The decision to suspend flights between Kolkata and London has been a difficult one to make. However, the route is not making a profitable contribution to our business and we are unable to sustain it," said Amanda Amos, British Airways' area commercial manager South Asia.

Amos said India would remain an important market for the airline, which would continue working on its growth plans in the country.

"India remains an incredibly important market for British Airways and we continue with our growth plans on routes that we believe will be profitable. We continue to offer our customers an extensive network in India. There will be options for both our passenger and cargo customers in the Kolkata region to join our services via other Indian gateways."

Customers booked to travel with British Airways from Kolkata after March 28, 2009, will be contacted by the airline so that alternative arrangements can be made.

The airline currently operates three flights a week between Kolkata and Heathrow airport in London.

British Airways has operated flights to Kolkata intermittently since the 1930s.

According to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report, Kolkata’s Howrah region is proposed to get a second airport in a bid to ease the passenger congestion at the existing Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA). Speaking at a function in Howrah yesterday, Subhash Chakraborty, West Bengal Transport Minister said, “There has been a considerable increase of passengers at the NSCBIA and so it was necessary to develop another airport and Howrah was the appropriate place for the purpose.”

Laying the foundation stone of a bus terminus at Ramrajatala in Howrah, Chakraborty informed, “Currently, a consultancy agency deputed by the state government is doing the survey work and once they give the report, the whole project will be finalised. There is land belonging to the Eastern Railway beside the Kona Expressway, but there is some dispute with the land and so we are thinking of some other land. We have directed all the MPs and the MLAs of the district to look for land and once they give a report, we will finalise it.

When asked on why Howrah has been chosen for Kolkata’s second airport, Chakraborty said, “Howrah is the twin city of Kolkata and an airport in this town was necessary. Moreover Howrah's proximity to Kolkata will also help in developing this airport.”