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by Devesh Agarwal
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| IndiGo Airbus A320 VT-IGV at Bengaluru International Airport. Photo copyright Vedant Agarwal. Used with permission. |
At approximately 20:10 (14:40Z), an IndiGo Airbus A320-232 registration VT-IGV performing flight 6E-125 from New Delhi to Bangalore, with 110 passengers and six crew (two pilots, four cabin crew), veered off the runway 27 while attempting to land at Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) during heavy rains and cross-winds.
The aircraft damaged five runway lights and suffered burst tyres, finally stopping near taxiway Foxtrot, and blocking the sole runway 09/27. There were no injuries.
All flight operations at the airport were suspended till repairs to the aircraft were carried out and it was towed to the apron. Flight operations resumed almost three hours later at 22:55 (17:25Z).
A number of flights both domestic and international were diverted to neighbouring airports like Chennai.
The airline released this statement
IndiGo flight 6E–125 from Delhi to Bengaluru, while landing on runway 27 at the Bengaluru airport at 20:10 pm, landed to the right of the center line, while experiencing heavy rains upon landing. The aircraft veered to the right and contacted 5 runway edge lights which led to deflation of the right main tyres. The aircraft was controlled and was taxied off the runway onto taxi track ‘’Foxtrot” and stopped.
All 110 passengers and six crew on board are safe with no injuries reported and have been de-planed safely from the aircraft to the terminal.
As per the operating procedure, the aircraft will be grounded for maintenance work. The matter has been reported to the DGCA and the safety department of IndiGo and DGCA will inquire further into the matter at the earliest.
At IndiGo, we are committed to passenger comfort, and safety is our highest priority. Hence, there can be absolutely no compromise on safety.
In April 2009, in a very similar incident, a Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320-232 VT-KFT also veered off runway 27 in heavy rain and winds, and damaged runway lights. (Read that story here). At that time the runway was shut for less than 55 minutes. A shut down of three hours with the aircraft stopping on the taxiway suggests significantly more damage to the aircraft than IndiGo is claiming.
