An IndiGo flight carrying 227 passengers including five Trinamool MPs from Delhi to Srinagar flew into a hailstorm on Wednesday, suffered severe jolts that triggered multiple warnings in the cockpit, plunged alarmingly and was denied a request for emergency passage through Pakistani airspace.
Flight 6E 2142 eventually landed safely at Srinagar with the pilots relying on manual flying skills. No injuries were reported but the aircraft’s “nose radom” was damaged.
Whiplash weather wasn’t the only hazard the passenger aircraft was careening through on its way to Srinagar. The flight could potentially have come close to triggering an international airspace incident at a time when the skies along the India-Pakistan frontier are wrought with hostility, and both have barred use of their airspace to each other’s aircraft.
Other than being a commercial airport, Srinagar is also a sensitive forward air force base. Very close by is another Indian Air Force defence and assault facility at Awantipora.
At the time the troubled airliner was struggling through hostile weather (possibly in the proximity of Pathankot, which lies close to the Pakistan border and is approximately 45 minutes from Lahore), Amritsar and Jammu were possibly the closest airports. But the drift of the hurricane-grade winds probably squared them off the equation for the airliner.
“It was a near-death experience,” NDTV quoted one of the MPs on board, Sagarika Ghose, as saying after landing. “People were screaming, praying, panicking. Hats off to the pilot who brought
us through.”
Sheikh Samiullah, a frequent flier, said he and other passengers were screaming and even the flight attendants were crying, The New York Times reported.
“They were calling their gods, we were calling our gods,” Samiullah, 33, said of the passengers shouting prayers in Hindi and Arabic. “We thought it was our last flight; we thought we were going to die.”
The plane jolted upwards and from side to side, and then plunged again over a period of five to six minutes, Samiullah said. He was sure the plane would crash into the mountains below or be struck by the lightning visible from
the windows.
At one point, the Airbus A321 descended at the rate of 8,500fpm (feet per minute), far exceeding the typical 1,500-3,000fpm for a standard approach, NDTV reported.
The flight, which had taken off at 4.55pm, was hit by turbulence over Pathankot near the Pakistan border, at a point 90km from Jammu airport, 100km from Amritsar airport and 140km from Lahore, sources said.
A statement from civil aviation regulator DGCA said the crew initially attempted to turn back but as they were close to the thunderstorm cloud, they decided to penetrate the weather.
While the aircraft was passing through a thunderstorm cloud, the regulator said, warnings flashed in the cockpit about an Angle of Attack fault, lost Alternate Law protection, and unreliable backup speed scale.
“Due to updraft and downdraft... the autopilot tripped and aircraft speed had wide variations. As a result, Maximum Operating Speed/ Maximum operating Mach warnings and repeated stall warnings were triggered,” the DGCA said.
It said the crew requested the Indian Air Force “for deviation towards left (Pakistan border)… however, it was not approved... Later, the crew contacted Lahore to enter into their (Pakistani) airspace to avoid the weather but... was refused.”
Later, “the crew declared ‘PAN PAN’ (an emergency situation) to Srinagar ATC… and made a safe landing”, the DGCA said.
It said the matter was under investigation.
Passengers react after a Delhi–Srinagar IndiGo flight hit turbulence mid-air due to inclement weather, prompting the pilot to report the _emergency_ to air traffic control at Srinagar. PTI
On Thursday, IndiGo said the aircraft was undergoing the necessary inspection and maintenance in Srinagar before being cleared for further operations.
Apart from Ghose, the Trinamool delegation on board included MPs Derek O’Brien, Nadimul Haque, Manas Bhunia and Mamata Thakur.
IAF clarifies
An IAF statement said that according to a Notam (Notice to Airmen), Pakistani airspace was not available for India-registered aircraft. Therefore, the IAF’s Northern Area Control advised the Indigo crew accordingly to ensure the safety of the aircraft and passengers.
(India and Pakistan have both extended their Notams till June 23. The earlier Notams were to expire on May 23.)
However, the IAF provided the IndiGo flight with “real-time assistance, including control vectors and groundspeed updates to guide the aircraft and ensure a safe landing”, air force sources said.
An IAF official said that in normal times, India and Pakistan help ensure the safety of each other’s civilian aircraft.
He recalled that in May 2023, a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 from Muscat had crossed into Indian airspace after bad weather prevented a landing in Lahore. Under IAF monitoring, the plane flew over the city of Tarn Taran (Punjab) before re-entering Pakistani airspace and landing in Multan.
Questions
Sanjay Lazar, aviation expert and CEO of Avialaz Consultants, said the Lahore ATC’s refusal of the IndiGo crew’s request showed a “lack of empathy”.
He, however, added: “India and Pakistan are at semi-war status and their airspaces are closed to each other’s traffic. The question that arises is, did the Indigo flight declare Mayday or Pan Pan?”
IndiGo has not answered this question yet.
Aviation experts were divided on the pilot’s decision not to choose an alternative airport for landing.
The ALPA India president, Captain Sam Thomas, said the pilot had shown confidence and taken a wise decision in continuing to fly to Srinagar. He said the damage to the flight’s nose would have had little impact.
But the CEO of Martin Consulting, Mark D. Martin, asked why the flight hadn’t diverted to Amritsar or Chandigrah instead of entering the bad weather.
“Srinagar is aggressive terrain and with bad weather, flying into a CB (cumulonimbus) thunderstom cloud was the riskiest gamble to take,” he said.
“The action by the crew was reckless. Thank heavens, luck was on (their) side.”
Cockpit warnings
An NDTV report explained that an Angle of Attack sensor fault, possibly from hail or ice, can disrupt the stall warning system, which alerts pilots with lights, sounds or vibrations when the wing’s angle to the airflow risks a stall, causing the plane to lose lift and control.
Alternate Law is a degraded flight control mode in Airbus fly-by-wire systems where certain automated protections, like stall and overspeed safeguards, are disabled, requiring more direct pilot control, NDTV explained.
Unreliable airspeed readings, likely from blocked pitot tubes (which measure airspeed), triggered repeated stall and maximum speed warnings, it added.