Air India pilots fly plane with fuselage crack

NEW DELHI: Two senior commanders and a flight engineer of Air India have been grounded for flying an aircraft with a crack on its fuselage. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airline are probing this lapse as the crew reportedly operated the flight even after discovering the crack on the main body section of the Airbus A-319 during a pre-flight walk around inspection.

"The aircraft was to operate on Patna-Delhi section on October 9. For rostering reasons, two experienced commanders were to fly this aircraft instead of the usual combo of a caption and a co-pilot. During the pre-flight walk around the aircraft on the tarmac at Patna airport, the pilots and flight engineer observed a deep dent with a crack. Still they operated the flight to Delhi and then on arrival gave a voluntary report about the crack in the fuselage," said a source.

After getting this voluntary report, AI de-rostered the crew and started investigating the lapse as "luckily the flight was uneventful but there was a potential for things to go wrong due to the crack," said the source. The DGCA was also informed and it also started a probe into the matter. While AI was probing what could have caused the dent and the crack, the regulator asked why the crew operated the flight after observing the same. And why they did not ground the plane to operate the flight after carrying out repairs. These questions became more puzzling as two experienced commanders were operating the flight. The regulator then wrote to AI, asking for the crew to be grounded," said the source.