With 370 on board, the Air India flight over the United States has reported a pilot nightmare

New Delhi:

"We are really, you know, stuck and there is no fuel," a terse message from Captain Rustom Palia, commanding an Air India Boeing 777-300 to air traffic control At New York.

There were 370 passengers aboard AI-101, the flagship flight of Air India, who attempted and failed to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport. New York on September 11, in degraded weather conditions. They had flown more than 15 hours on non-stop service from New Delhi, among the longest flights in the world.

It was the worst nightmare of a pilot during the most critical phase of his flight – his landing.

"Basically, we have a single source radio altimeter, we have a collision avoidance and traffic avoidance system," Air India's 777-300 Air Traffic Control Commander said in a statement. At New York. "No Auto-Land, no wind shear system, (no) Auto Speed ​​Brake and Auxiliary Unit is so unusable," he added.

And that was not all. The three instrument landing system (ILS) receivers aboard the jet did not function properly. ILS is the key system that helps pilots align the jet with the runway during landing, regardless of weather conditions, day or night.

"This instrument landing system is unpredictable," said the pilot at Air Traffic Control (ATC) "because every time we turn to locate him, he just left."

"Your instrument landing system is out of service on both sides of the plane, right?" asked for air traffic control.

"Yes, it's ok," the pilot replied.

"And you said that your radio altimeters came out on both sides of the plane?" ATC asked.

"Uh, that's right, we're on a single radio altimeter now," said the pilot.

In simple terms, the nine-year-old Boeing 777-300 pilots, among the most sophisticated airliners ever designed, should land manually without the help of many systems designed to aid the process.

With a dangerously low fuel on board and extremely cloudy conditions over much of New York State, they should continue to descend in the approximate direction of the runway without knowing their precise location. With the cloud base only 400 feet away, pilots should fly even lower to spot the runway.

"Okay, Air India, just when you get the chance, give me the people on board and the fuel on board," he said. ATC.

"We have a total of 370 (souls) on board and the fuel is 7200 kg, Air India-101," replied one of the pilots at ATC.

In the end, after being unable to land at JFK International Airport after being confronted with a series of instrument failures, the AI ​​- 101 pilots were able to land at the designated Newark Airport. At that time, the commander of AI-101 had made his decision. There was not enough fuel to risk flying to Albany, Boston or Bradley International Airport in Connecticut and he would try to "pull an approach" towards Newark despite the marginal weather conditions.

Without the availability of its instrument landing systems, the crew decided to attempt a "non-precision" approach using the few functional aids to navigation on board. This meant using the jet's vertical and lateral navigation systems to simulate an instrument landing approach in Newark. Air India does not train its pilots. Boeing, the jet manufacturer, does not mention the use of this technique in its operational guidelines for the 777.

Moments before landing, the Newark airport tower triggered an alert and said the AI-101 was flying too low on approach. 90 seconds later, the big plane was on the ground, about 38 minutes after the first crisis in the cockpit.

Air India declined to comment on the incident pending an investigation. The audio of the conversation between the crew of the AI-101 and the air traffic control was published by liveatc.net.