Posted on 07/28/2017 10:57:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
Two pilots have been suspended from duty after their aircraft, carrying 99 passengers, nearly ran out of fuel because they forgot to retract the landing gear after take-off.
Air India Flight AI676 was en route to Mumbai from Kolkata on July 22 but was forced to divert to Nagpur when the crew became alarmed by the speed at which the aircraft was losing fuel thanks to the additional drag created by the extended wheels.
An unidentified source told the Times of India that the “brand new Airbus A320”, one of the most fuel efficient aircraft in existence, had struggled to climb after take-off, prompting the pilots to settle on an altitude of 24,000 feet as opposed to a usual cruising height of 35,000 feet. The source, who made a point of saying that both pilots were women, said it flew like this at 230 knots - as opposed to around 500 knots - for about an hour-and-a-half, while the extended landing gear dragged heavily on the aircraft.
At this point, 90 minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour flight, the crew requested permission to divert to Nagpur as their fuel would have run out before reaching Mumbai.
“When preparing to land, they decided to lower the landing gear. At this point they realised that the wheels had been out all the while from Kolkata,” said the source.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“Air India Flight.....”
No way.
Conservation of energy is a b|tch.
Instrumentation Panel gave them no warning landing gear was down? I thought the cockpits were more advanced than this.
Were they primping and putting on make-up rather than watch their instruments?
Even if it doesn’t, they should have known something was wrong if they could only fly at 1/2 speed. Sometimes the computers don’t know everything.
But then we had a case of an American airliner crashing because the entire crew was attempting to fix a broken light bulb.
I'm fairly certain this is a standard feature in almost all Boeing aircraft.
Duh, ..... Did you see the pins?.. , Nope”I thought you saw the pins? Da,,,,NObody saw the pins. Nice one!
Yes! Eastern Airlines in the Everglades!.......................
Air India ,”Can anyone here Fly a plane”? “You, OK you’re a Pilot , there’s the plane “
The ladies.
When they could not reach cruising altitude they should have turned back right then!...................
Ding Ding Ding!...................
“Kolkata”
Is that how they’re trying to get me to say Calcutta? Ain’t gonna happen, fellas, not on my watch.
I suppose forgetting to retract the gear is better than forgetting to lower the gear.
No freaking way a true pilot, not a diversity hire from the turd-world cesspool, could NOT KNOW the gear was down.
No way.
Incompetence and stupidity.
The drag was very obvious (as even the females flying the jet discovered).
The gear and gear-doors have a speed they are not to exceed when the gear is still down. I imagine at the very least the gear doors were torn off or warped.
I guess that Airbus thought that NOBODY WOULD EVER BE THAT STUPID!.......................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.