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Barely a month after a Jet Airways plane landed at Thiruvananthapuram with insufficient fuel, another Jet aircraft declared a fuel emergency on Thursday night during landing at the Bengaluru airport, following a diversion from Chennai.
The ATR aircraft carrying 59 passengers was operating on the Madurai-Chennai route, but was forced to divert to Bengaluru because of runway closure at Chennai. Six other flights bound for Chennai were also diverted to Bengaluru and Hyderabad as a portion of the runway, which had undergone recarpeting recently, peeled off. This resulted in closure of the runway for about an hour.
“Jet Airways flight 9W 2346 from Madurai to Chennai, with 59 passengers on board had to divert to Bengaluru after holding for over 20 minutes on account of runway closure at Chennai. As a result of air traffic congestion over Bengaluru, the pilot was advised by ATC (air traffic controller) to follow a landing sequence behind other arriving aircraft. Due to shortage of fuel, the pilot requested for priority landing at Bengaluru and subsequently declared emergency as the fuel was approaching the minimum reserve level prescribed by regulatory standards. The flight landed safely at 9.15 pm,” said an airline spokesperson.
Last month, a Doha-Kochi route aircraft landed at its seventh attempt at Thiruvanthapuram following a diversion. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had ordered an inquiry and suspended the two pilots. It had also decided to review the airline’s fuel uplift policy.
Flight planning requires airlines to carry fuel for destination and alternate airport in case of diversion and the same is laid down in regulations. This includes fuel to destination, contingency fuel, fuel for diversion airport and fuel sufficient for holding for 30 minutes at the diversion airfield plus the fuel required for approach and landing.
