IAF helped IndiGo plane land safely in J&K after Pakistan snub

NEW DELHI: When IndiGo's Delhi-Srinagar flight of May 21 flew into severe turbulence and a hailstorm near Pathankot, they first tried to steer clear of the bad weather but were not allowed to do so by Lahore ATC.
They then considered returning to Delhi before deciding to continue to Srinagar, safely manoeuvring through challenging operating circumstances before safely landing the plane with 220 people, reports Saurabh Sinha.
"Once Lahore refused overflight clearance, and the aircraft proceeded towards Srinagar, the flight was subsequently professionally assisted," IAF sources said.
IndiGo pilots flew aircraft manually till they came out of hailstorm
The flight was subsequently professionally assisted till a safe-landing at Srinagar airfield by giving control vectors and groundspeed readouts," IAF sources said.
During this time, the pilots of IndiGo flight (6E-2142) got multiple warnings - like maximum operating speed and angle of attack fault - for the Airbus A321neo (VT-IMD). They flew the aircraft manually (without autopilot) till they exited the hailstorm and declared an urgency situation.
The aircraft touched down at Srinagar with everyone safe. But the plane's nosecone (radome) was damaged while flying through the hailstorm.
DGCA, which is probing the incident, said in a statement Friday that the aircraft flew into the hailstorm while cruising at 36,000 feet: "As per crew statement, they requested IAF Northern Control for deviating left towards the international border due to weather on the route. However, it was not approved. Later, crew contacted Lahore (air traffic control) to enter their airspace to avoid the weather but the same was also refused.
Crew initially attempted to return (to Delhi) but as they were close to the thunderstorm cloud, they decided to penetrate the weather."
"Crew chose to continue at the same heading to exit the weather by shortest route towards Srinagar. While in thunderstorm cloud, warnings of angle of attack fault, alternate law protection lost and backup speed scale unreliable were triggered. Due to updraft & downdraft... autopilot tripped and aircraft speed had wide variations.
As a result, maximum operating speed/maximum operating Mach warnings and repeated stall warnings were triggered," DGCA said.
During this period, DGCA statement says, the plane's rate of descent reached 8,500 feet per minute. "Crew flew the aircraft manually till they exited the hailstorm. After carrying out all checklist actions, crew declared PAN PAN (urgency call) to Srinagar ATC, requested radar vectors, and made a safe landing with auto thrust operating normally," it added.
IAF sources said: "The NOTAM issued by Pakistani civil aviation authorities was in vogue (barring Indian aircraft from Pakistani airspace)..."

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