NEW DELHI (PTI): All 163 passengers and crew on board an Indian airlines flight had a providential escape when the Russian made TU154 plane crash landed and caught fire under zero visibility at the Delhi airport at 0410 hours Jan.9.
The 165scater TU154 aircraft, on wet lease from the Uzbekistan airlines was on a flight from Hyderabad to Delhi and was operating about eight hours behind schedule.
Of the 152 passengers four were children while the 11member crew comprised nine Russians and two Indian stewards.
The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DEDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (popularly known as the black box) have been recovered and sealed. Both are expected to be decoded in a day or two, according to M.R.Sivaraman, director general of civil aviation.
The aircraft, one among the six on a wet lease to tackle the ongoing pilot’s agitation, landing at about 0410 hrs. In dense fog and one of its wings hit the nun way igniting a fire, according to experts present at the crash site.
The plane, which lost contact with the control tower, strayed off the runway onio soft ground and overturned.
When a PTI team reached the Site, the aircraft was lying upside down completely charred and destroyed, with the debris spread over an area of 2.5 kms adjoining the runway. Some of the parts were lying on the main runway blocking landing and takeoff of any aircraft Civil aviation minister, Madhayrao Scindia, civil aviation secretary, S.Kanungo, airline managing director, L.Vasudev, director general of civil aviation, Sivaraman and chairman of the international airport authority, V.K.Mathur, reached the crash site within minutes of receiving information.
Some of the passengers who escaped and ‘reached terminal said, for 40 minutes no rescue agency reached the aircraft after it landed and caught fire.
According to the chief fire officer at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, they received the first call at 0435 hours (IST) and reached the site at 0442 hours (IST). Immediately they cordoned off the plane and sprayed foam.
One of the passengers, who appeared dazed and shocked, declined to make any comment saying “I am not in a position to say anything nearly four hours after the crash landing.”
Director general civil aviation, Sivaraman and [AAI chairman, V.K.Mathur told media persons at the site that call II (category I) landing facilities were operational at the airport since last Thursday (January 7) for instrumental landing system used for landing in thick fog.
However, they claimed that the visibility conditions at the time of landing were of cat I (category I) giving clear visibility for about 1000 meters.
The aircraft was landing under cat conditions, they claimed when asked if the weather could degenerate to such an extent in a few seconds that the plane could go off the runway onto soft soil. They said it was too difficult for them to make any comment till they went through the weather data.
The airport manager, who was the first to reach the site said, the landing had been cleared and all runway lights were on. Another international flight had landed a few minutes before the incident.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 15, 1993
