The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India has suspended the license of a SpiceJet pilot following a probe into an incident of severe turbulence. The incident occurred on May 1st, 2022, and resulted in injuries to 15 people onboard, including passengers and cabin crew. Two passengers suffered serious injuries and were placed in Intensive Care Units (ICU).
SpiceJet flight SG 945 was traveling from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) to Durgapur Airport (RDP) in the eastern state of West Bengal. Most of the flight was uneventful, but the Boeing 737-800 encountered severe turbulence about 30 minutes before landing. Initial reports suggested that the aircraft failed to avoid bad weather in its flight path.
In addition to injuries to those onboard, the aircraft’s cabin also took a beating. Data from Flightradar24 shows the plane only undertook one 20-minute flight a day after the incident before it was grounded for another three days.
License suspended
The DGCA has suspended the license of the pilot-in-command (PIC) of the flight in question. It was reported that the SpiceJet aircraft flew straight through rough weather instead of going around as all other planes did. According to new developments, the PIC ignored his co-pilot’s suggestion, who advised him to fly around the rough patch.
Immediately after the incident, both pilots were taken off flying duties, while a few maintenance personnel who cleared the aircraft for its next flight were also suspended. The plane had several broken components in the passenger cabin as a direct result of the incident. According to news agency ANI, the Boeing 737 experienced forces in the range of +2.46G to -1.36G during the turbulence.
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The PIC’s license has been suspended for a period of six months following a thorough probe into the incident. Simple Flying has reached out to the Indian low-cost carrier for a comment on the matter. This article will be updated with the response.
Malfunctioning weather radar
Of late, SpiceJet has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, the most common of which are flight safety issues. As Simple Flying reported last month, the Indian regulator warned the airline against the frequent use of MELs (minimum equipment list) and forced it to cut operations by half. Most of SpiceJet’s problems result from the financial difficulties it has had over the last few months.
For this reason, the logical first step for authorities investigating the Durgapur incident would be to look at the plane’s weather radar. And bingo! India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that pilots flying the aircraft prior to the flight in question had experienced and reported some reliability issues with the weather radar.
A preliminary AAIB report said,
“The weather radar was not showing the intensity and extent of the actual weather. It was painting a very small picture of the weather, which could be misleading. After landing at Mumbai, the flight crew made (an) entry in the PDR that while the weather radar was serviceable, it was not displaying weather (conditions) at all in air.”
Source: ANI