Technical report soon on Air Deccan incident

BY A CORRESPONDENT
March 24, 2006

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has started finalising its technical report on a recent incident in which an Air Deccan aircraft skidded off the Bangalore airport runway, injuring nine persons. The DGCA officials had retrieved and inspected the flight data recorder from the ATR 72-500 aircraft.

The technical report on the accident would be submitted by the Hyderabad-based Air Safety Department of the directorate to the Civil Aviation Ministry, according to local DGCA officials.

The 72-seater Air Deccan plane had jumped off after the touchdown, before going up in the air and bumping twice. The aircraft then came to a halt on the green patch next to the tarmac. The accident occurred at 10.17 am on Saturday, March 11. The Airports Authority of India confirmed that the runway was not damaged.

But it is reported that the aircraft required major repairs. The nose wheel of the aircraft fell off. The main wheels got damaged and the propellers were damaged in the process. The aircraft was then towed away for investigation.