Go Air accident: Experts on the skids
Thursday June 1 2006 11:31 IST (Indian Express)

NEDUMBASSERY: The skidding of Go Air Flight from the runway of the Cochin International Airport here on Tuesday evening has snowballed into a controversy. The experts in airport operation said that the Go Air flight, which landed the touch zone of the runway, safely covered more than 1,000 ft before skidding. The nose wheel was found damaged. But experts ruled out the theory that the nose wheel was damaged at the time of landing.

The passengers of the Go Air flight G8 115 had a miraculous escape and no causality was reported. However, it is learnt that the incident was intimated to the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by the CIAL.

Meanwhile, the Go Air authorities have managed to obtain a special permission to take the aircraft as ferry flight from Kochi to the Base Station of Go Air at Mumbai. The flight left from Kochi to Mumbai at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday.

-- Edited by karatecatman at 00:49, 2006-06-02

Dear Vabby,

A hard landing is basically a situation where the rate of descent just before touchdown is unusually high and abrupt. As a result, the aircraft lands with a harsh thud and sometimes the main landing gear might even bounce a few inches before touching down again. Have experienced one of these on a Spicejet B737-800 when landing at Goa.

About Go Air, well they now have four aircraft (all A-320s). Their aircraft can be distinguished by the different tail colors. The ones I have seen are green, blue, orange and pink. I have flown Go-Air around 3-4 times and I would say their service is slightly below average.

I happened to travel on their launch flight (BOM-AMD) Jeh Wadia, their Chairman was also on board. Their inaugural flight left around 30 min late with Mr Wadia giving the staff a piece of his mind. Their inflight service is also inconsistent. One one flight passengers were served a 500ml water bottle free of charge whereas on the return flight, they were served only a glass of water! They sell snack boxes at Rs 50/- These boxes consist of a sandwich, a samosa and a piece of cake.

Have flown Go-Air on BOM-AMD, BOM-CBE and BOM-JAI sectors.

- Vivek 

vabby wrote:

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  Few questions please...  Define hard landing???    Whats the fleet of Go Air. How good are they performing??    Any airservices hit because of aircraft going for repairs....

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An RVR of 800 meters is more than enough, rain or no rain it doesn’t matter!! The article says those guys might have had 1200 meters!!!! In fact with TDZ and runway centerline lights the RVR drops to 1800 feet. There is no reason why the plane should have been so off course, incidents like this should be a huge concern to the public.

Missing the centerline by a few feet is alright, but to hit an edge light?? More airlines buying more planes is great, but safe pilots and safe airline SOPs/culture is uncompromisingly important. Sorry if I sound harsh, but incidents like these demand answers and more important, corrective action.
eP007

Last Thu The Aircraft was parked at Bom,pending Mx Inspections.

regds

MEL

TKMCE wrote:

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Please keep in mind that weather was really horrible in both CCJ and COK around the time  this incident happened. CCJ was worst hit and COK was only slightly better off. RVRs can as we all know in such weather have sudden fluctuations.
 
 -- Edited by TKMCE at 11:17, 2006-06-05

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True, the weather can change but I have never been in a situation where the RVR fluctuated suddenly, and anyway that’s besides the point. On a precision approach you can initiate your approach whenever, but later it’s up to the pilots to make a decision and take into account 'flight visibility' as opposed to 'reported visibility (RVR)'
If the weather is bad, go to the alternate. Rough landings are fine, but certainly not hitting an edge light.
eP007