IAF jeep near runway forces early takeoff at Pune airport, AI plane damaged

PUNE/NEW DELHI: The pilots of an Air India flight (AI-852) to Delhi with 180 passengers onboard resorted to a steep take-off at Pune airport on Saturday morning after spotting a jeep and a man on the edge of the runway.
The aircraft — an Airbus A321 — was hurtling at a speed of 222kmph when an alert Captain Vikram Singh Besoa and First Officer Mansika Harlan spotted them and decided to go for early rotation — lifting nose wheel off the ground — instead of completing the take off roll as planned before doing so.The plane landed in Delhi at 10am with all the passengers safely. During the inspection of the aircraft in Delhi for its onward journey to Srinagar, it was found that the plane suffered a tail-strike.
The Pune airport director, Kuldeep Singh, confirmed that the pilot of the aircraft had spotted a jeep on edge of the runway during the course of the take-off and reported it to the Air Traffic Control (ATC). “The ATC acknowledged the message of the pilot,” he told TOI.
Singh said, “The flight was taking off from Pune at 8.05am. The ATC and the runway of the Pune airport is managed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Airports Authority of India doesn’t have jurisdiction there. The jeep in question belongs to the IAF, which has its own mechanism to manage the runway, and it will conduct an investigation.”
He said, “The pilot, after landing in Delhi, reported the matter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which will also investigate the matter,” Singh said.
DGCA, IAF launch probe after tail-strike at airport
As per protocol, the crew has been taken off flying duty so that they are available for the investigation. “We will have an interaction with them shortly. The IAF has been requested to preserve ATC recording for the investigation,” said a DGCA official.
IAF spokesperson Group Captain Anupam Banerjee told TOI over the phone from New Delhi, “On February 15, during the morning hours, a service vehicle was cleared for routine task on the runway at Pune Airfield. It reached close to the runway at a time when an Air India flight was on the take-off roll. Due to the presence of the vehicle near the runway, the Air India pilot had to do an earlier rotation than what was planned by the crew of the aircraft. The matter is under investigation by IAF.”
Dhananjay Kumar, the spokesperson of Air India, said, “The A321 aircraft was scheduled to operate as AI 825 to Srinagar, but certain marks were observed towards the empennage area. This aircraft arrived from Pune as AI-852 and it has been withdrawn for detailed investigation. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and solid-state flight data recorder (SSFDR) readouts would be carried out and the findings would be shared appropriately.”
A source said the damage to the aircraft was the result of it scraping either against the jeep or the runway during the steep take-off in Pune.
“The aircraft was hurtling on the runway at a speed of 222km per hour (120 knots) when the pilots noticed the jeep on the edge of the runway in Pune. After attaining that speed, the take-off couldn’t have been aborted as that would have resulted in an accident,” a source at the city airport said.
Another source in the airport said, “The runway of the airport is closed from 8am to 10.30am from Sunday to Friday for IAF’s practice sessions. On Saturdays, the runway is shut down from 11am to 5.30pm for maintenance. Some outer peripheral work pertaining to the runway re-carpeting is also taking place in the apron area at present. The IAF carries out the runway maintenance works.”
Aviation analyst and expert Dhairyashil Vandekar said the quick thinking of the pilots saved the day. “As per our understanding, the pilots did a very good job and their quick thinking prevented a disaster from happening. They were at a very high speed and abandoning the take-off could have led to serious consequences. It must have been a high-pressure situation for them. The aircraft was rolling at 120 knots and his decision to take-off has to be applauded,” Vandekar said.
He also said, “The fact that a jeep came on the edge of the runway when the aircraft was rolling at a high speed itself is a very big lapse. It is the duty of the ATC to ensure that the runway is cleared before it permits an aircraft to take off. For that, standard procedure, including telling all vehicles and people to move away, is followed.”
(With inputs from Sandip Dighe)