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 ...
There are two kind of pilots. Those that have forgotten to lower the landing gear, and those that will. (Why amateur pilots should avoid retractable landing gear.)
YeP! I’d take that any day!.............
“Women drivers.”
And male pilots have crashed planes and killed people because they were talking about having sex with flight attendants.
Hard to believe they just continued ahead when they could not reach cruising altitude, instead of trying to figure out what was wrong. The plane must of felt very different flying at that speed with the gear down.
Since it was a ‘new’ aircraft, they should have reported the situation immediately and turned back to the airport on priority!..................
I worked AControl at a military airport.
“Confirm, Gears Down” was radioed many times by us. We used the binoculars a lot.
Good flight: Being able to exit the aircraft on your own.
Great flight: The plane is able to fly again.
I think it was the 90’s, IIRC................
Isn’t there a cockpit display that would make it apparent that the gear was down? WTH were they doing- texting while flying?
These clowns during the flight didn't even wonder why they could not reach cruising altitude and going much slower than designed.
The first thing that comes to mind, 100% of the time, would be drag. The second thought I would have is what would cause excessive drag?
The third, are the landing gears in the down position? Duh.
This is what we get for two empty kitchens?
The doors are closed when gear is down then recycle on retraction.
The Ghost Of Flight 401
GUMPS
The alarm is placed in a spot on the control panel where it is convenient to put down a makeup mirror.
“And male pilots have crashed planes and killed people because they were talking about having sex with flight attendants.”
Clearly the fault of the flight attendants. :-)
Air France Flight 447
One of my rostered duties as an E4 was airfield CQ at a very less than busy Army airfield in Germany. Basically I was there to see that no one broke into the hangars or tampered with the fuel trucks, send in weather reports, and perform periodic commo checks. We were available as an emergency divert field, and my entire ATC training if called upon was to say, “Roger, Army aircraft 123, land at pilots discretion” The occasion, fortunately, never arose. They lost a Luftwaffe F-4 somewhere in the general vicinity, and called to see if I’d seen anything, but I had not.
I have trouble believing there weren’t half a dozen alarms blaring once they reached a threshold speed, altitude, course position, etc.. Most pilots start retracting the gear as soon as they reach the outer marker, if not before.
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