Spicejet B738 at Delhi, Jaipur and Delhi on Jan 5th 2014, Air India's runway excursion forces landing below weather minima and final fuel reserve

Last Update: February 28, 2017 / 18:35:27 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 5, 2014

Classification
Report

Airline
Spicejet

Flight number
SG-256

Departure
Goa, India

Destination
Delhi, India

Aircraft Registration
VT-SGU

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

A Spicejet Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SGU performing flight SG-256 from Goa to Delhi (India) with 176 passengers and 6 crew, was descending towards Delhi in deteriorating weather and traffic congestion. ATC advised the flight was #13 in the sequence for landing, the aircraft was instructed to perform two orbits, then was cleared to descend to 7000 feet. The captain (ATPL, 6,410 hours total, 2,003 hours on type in command) was rated for CAT II approaches, the first officer (CPL, 1,996 hours total, 1,743 hours on type) rated for CAT IIIa approaches. While being vectored for the ILS approach to runway 28 the RVR for runway 28 roll out dropped to 50 meters. The captain decided to hold at 7000 feet expecting an improvement in RVRs. After 26 minutes in the hold the captain queried the weather at Jaipur receiving information of 900 meters visibility with 1500 meters RVR. The captain therefore decided to divert to Jaipur, 3100kg of fuel were remaining (2573 kg required to divert to Jaipur, 3100kg of fuel required to divert to Lucknow).

Earlier an Air India flight, see Accident: Air India A320 at Jaipur on Jan 5th 2014, runway excursion on emergency landing, just like many other flights, had decided to divert from Delhi to Jaipur for the same reasons, the aircraft suffered a runway excursion and blocked the runway there.

After contacting Jaipur's ATC, which proved difficult due to traffic congestion on Jaipur's frequency due to the many diversions, the crew prepared for the approach in Jaipur and assessed their options to divert to Ahmedabad or Lucknow however found, they had no option but to land in Jaipur. Visibility dropped in Jaipur, too, and ATC reported visibility for runway 27 had dropped to 50 meters with the RVR at 200 meters. The crew advised ATC, they were committed to land in Jaipur. The crew briefed for a dual channel automatic landing.

Two aircraft were ahead of the Spicejet, the first went around and diverted to Ahmedabad, the next carried out a manual landing below weather minima, went off the runway and suffered an accident blocking the runway. The Spicejet crew was informed about the accident while on a 5nm final, went around and climbed to 3000 feet, 1715kg of fuel were remaining at that point.

The captain exercised his emergency authority and decided to divert to Delhi no matter what the weather was as the fuel was just sufficient to return to Delhi. After diverting back to Delhi, the crew performed a dual channel autolanding. While on final ILS approach for runway 28, tower advised the crew the RVR was 375/900/50 meters. The aircraft landed safely, 400kg of fuel were remaining. The crew cancelled Mayday and taxied the aircraft to the apron behind a follow me vehicle. After engine shutdown at the stand 150kg of fuel were remaining.

India's DGCA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

- the aircraft had to carry out second diversion with low fuel on board from alternate airport to original destination airport due to blockage of the runway by another aircraft (VT-ESH) which was substantially damaged during landing at the alternate airport.

- there was lack of operational supervision and desired ground support to flight.

- the earlier diversion from the destination to alternate was due to low visibility conditions at the destination airport and there were deteriorating visibility conditions at the alternate airport, the diversion to Lucknow instead of Jaipur would have been more appropriate.

The DGCA analysed the crew competence and qualifications did not contribute to the serious incident even though they were not in line with the operators "fog plan" in effect for operating the subject flight.

The DGCA analysed that the TAFs issued on Jan 4th and 5th 2014 had no correlation with the METARs issued thereafter. Jaipur's RVR was not calibrated, but no NOTAM had been issued, the ILS area of Jaipur was not protected, Jaipur did not issue trends with the METARs.

The DGCA analysed that the crew and aircraft had followed all requirements laid down, however had entered a very unsafe condition due to the unprecedented incident at Jaipur. Even though this did not result in an accident, the matter of flight planning and diversion to alternate airfields needs thorough review.

The DGCA analysed that a diversion to Lucknow could have prevented the unsafe condition. Dispatch was aware that visibility was reducing at Jaipur, phoned Jaipur and was advised that visibility could go down further. Nonetheless, dispatch advised the flight crew to divert to Jaipur as the weather was within minima and required only 28 minutes of flying time. The additional 400kg of fuel above the diversion fuel required to divert to Jaipur became the "golden lining" enabling the crew to divert back to Delhi.

The DGCA wrote in their analysis:

An aircraft commencing a second diversion due to a blocked runway is unprecedented. This can be attributed to the combination of low visibility conditions, which existed (not sudden) at Jaipur, no flight following or effective ground support to the aircraft, large number of aircraft diverting to Jaipur. The two major factors that saved the situation from resulting in a catastrophe were:

1. the timely diversion from Delhi i.e. with a fuel above minimum diversion fuel required for Lucknow, the other alternate.
2. carrying out auto landing at Delhi following second diversion.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 5, 2014

Classification
Report

Airline
Spicejet

Flight number
SG-256

Departure
Goa, India

Destination
Delhi, India

Aircraft Registration
VT-SGU

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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