A brake malfunction led to an Air India aircraft bursting its tyres while landing in Srinagar on Monday afternoon. The aircraft then got stuck on the runway and the Srinagar airport was closed for flight movement all day long. The aircraft was removed late on Monday night and the airport is expected to resume flight operations from Tuesday.
The problem started just after 2 pm when AI 821 was going to reach the final destination of its Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar flight with 149 passengers and seven crew members on board. “On touching down, the Srinagar air traffic control tower informed the pilot that the tyres of his Airbus A-320 (VT-ESE) had smoke and fire. The plane was then stopped on the runway itself. All passengers were immediately evacuated using emergency chutes as no one knew how serious the fire warning was,” said a source.
Sources said the aircraft, a 1993-vintage A-320, had a snag in the computer that controls its braking. Reportedly as a result of that snag, the brakes were pressed very hard that led to a tremendous amount of heat being generated. This led to smoke, fire and tyre bursts. The bogey wheel landing system of the old A-320s, the first batch which erstwhile Indian Airlines got from late 1980s to early 1990s, have been a source of snags for a very long time. – The Times of India