IndiGo pilot contacted Lahore after IAF denied permission to cross international border; DGCA says matter under probe

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday said that the recent incident where IndiGo's Delhi-Srinagar flight encountering turbulence due to a sudden hailstorm is under probe.

A Srinagar-bound IndiGo flight from Delhi with more than 220 people, including TMC MPs, on board encountered sudden hailstorm on Wednesday, prompting the pilot to report the "emergency" to air traffic control at Srinagar.

"All aircrew and 227 passengers are safe and the flight is declared AOG by the airline," he said.


'Aircraft on ground' (AOG) refers to a plane that is grounded and unable to fly due to technical issues.

A Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation, which included Derek O'Brien, Sagarika Ghose, Nadimul Haque, Mamata Thakur and Manas Bhuyan, was on board the plane, Ghose said.

Additionally, the aviation body said that the crew had requested Northern control (IAF) for deviation towards left (International Border) due to weather on the route, however it was not approved. Furthermore, later, the crew contacted Lahore to enter into their airspace to avoid the weather but the same was refused too.

"Crew initially attempted to return but as they were close to the thunderstorm cloud, they decided to penetrate the weather. Subsequently, they encountered hailstorm and severe turbulence. Crew chose to continue at same heading to exit the weather by the shortest route towards Srinagar. While in thunderstorm cloud, warnings of Angle of Attack fault, Alternate Law protection lost, backup Speed scale unreliable were triggered," said DGCA's statement.

"Due to updraft and down draft encountered by the aircraft the Autopilot tripped and aircraft speed had wide variations. As a result, Maximum Operating Speed/Maximum operating Mach (VMO/MMO) warnings and repeated stall warnings were triggered. During this period the aircraft rate of descent reached 8500 fpm crew flew the aircraft manually till they exit the hailstorm," added the body in its statement.

The DGCA said that there was no injury to any of the passenger on-board the flight. "Post flight walk around revealed damage to the Nose radome. The matter is under investigation by the DGCA," said DGCA.