Dreamliner from delhi landed in Melbourne when windshield cracked

NEW DELHI: In yet another Dreamliner safety scare, the cockpit windshield of an Air India Boeing-787 cracked mid-air on Sunday while winging its way from Delhi to Melbourne via Sydney. AI says the windshield cracked when AI 302 was about to land in Melbourne with 74 passengers on board on Diwali day and that there was "no safety hazard".

The aircraft (VT-ANK ) is now grounded in the Australian city. It was supposed to fly 121 passengers to Delhi as AI 301 on the return leg on Sunday. AI claims all these flyers were accommodated on other airlines.

The airline on Monday sent a team of engineers with a fresh windshield there from Delhi on Monday to both examine the cause of the crack and replace the same. "This team will examine why the windshield cracked. However, it was not a safety issue. Windshield cracks can happen with any aircraft and it is not an issue just faced by the Dreamliner," an AI spokesman said.

Incidentally, AI had faced trouble with its Dreamliner on the Melbourne-Delhi route the previous Sunday (October 27) also. The B-787 that day had taken off from Australia with 190 passengers but had to return soon after getting a systems failure warning.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) has ordered a probe into the latest Dreamliner scare and also sought a report from AI. "Windshield cracks are known to happen due to uneven heating which may have been the cause of the latest problem. It could have also happened due to something hitting the windshield.

In this case, preliminary reports suggest that the outer pane of the windshield cracked, which is not very dangerous. If the inner pane cracks, then loss of pressurization can happen which can be dangerous. A probe is on," said sources.
Meanwhile, following the spate of snags being reported in the Dreamliner, Boeing has stationed a technical team in Delhi. Air India currently has nine of these planes and some foreign airlines also fly the Boeing-787 to India. The Delhi-based team will cater to all Dreamliners flying here.

"We are watching the Boeing-787 very carefully. Our base in Seattle monitors each flight of this plane and we are in constant touch with AI. The Dreamliner has 97% reliability and we are not happy with that as this plane can do much better," Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s senior VP sales (Asia-Pacific and India), had said last week.
A senior AI official said that Boeing will do a software upgrade of Dreamliners.