IndiGo Airbus Catches Fire During Landing
Gerry Wingenbach August 21, 2014
The brake assembly of an IndiGo Airbus A-320 carrying 154 people caught fire Wednesday while landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
IndiGo Flight 176 from Mumbai had just landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) when air traffic control told the pilot that “dense smoke” was coming from the lower left-hand side of the A-320, IBNLive reported an airport official as saying.
“Smoke was detected from the left landing gear of the IndiGo flight when it touched down,” an official told The Economic Times of India.
The pilot moved the aircraft to a taxiway and ordered an immediate evacuation via emergency slides. Passengers evacuated “in approximately 75 seconds,” according to NDTV.
An airline spokesperson told IBNLive that some passengers incurred “minor injuries” during the evacuation process, including fractures and bruises. Airport sources estimated that a total of 28 people were injured.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and IndiGo have begun investigating the incident. Preliminary reports suggest that the smoke was caused by heavy friction on the landing gear’s left brake assembly.
In March, a similar incident occurred when an IndiGo aircraft landed at Katmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM). It’s believed that the aircraft’s right brake assembly triggered the fire and smoke.
IndiGo, headquartered in Gurgaon, is the largest airline in India. It has a market share of 31 percent and is one of the fastest growing budget airlines in the world.
[Photo: NA.dir / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)]
