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Private charted flight veers off runway; seven injured

Sep 15, 2023 12:50 AM IST

A private chartered aircraft skidded off the runway at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, injuring seven people. The co-pilot is in critical condition. The runway was closed for 90 minutes, resulting in diverted flights, cancellations, and delays. The flight, hired by J M Baxi and Co., had eight people on board. The cause of the accident is under investigation, but heavy rain and low visibility are suspected factors.

Seven people were injured after a private chartered aircraft arriving from Vishakhapatnam skidded off the runway at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Thursday evening. The co-pilot is in a critical condition and will be operated on soon.

**EDS: IMAGE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA** Mumbai: Officials gather around a damaged aircraft after it veered off the runway with six passengers and two crew members on board at the Mumbai airport amid heavy rains, in Mumbai, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. No casualty has been reported as of now, sources said. (PTI Photo) (PTI09_14_2023_000242B) (PTI)
**EDS: IMAGE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA** Mumbai: Officials gather around a damaged aircraft after it veered off the runway with six passengers and two crew members on board at the Mumbai airport amid heavy rains, in Mumbai, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. No casualty has been reported as of now, sources said. (PTI Photo) (PTI09_14_2023_000242B) (PTI)

The runway was shut for more than 90 minutes. While 37 flights were diverted to other airports, 13 flights were cancelled and 88 arrivals and 270 departures were delayed, officials said.

The flight, Learjet 45, was hired by Mumbai-based shipping company J M Baxi and Co. It took off from Vizag at 3.23pm with eight people on board - company MD Dhruv Kotak, K K Krishnadas, Aakaarsh Sethi, Arul Sali, Lars Sorensen, who is from Denmark, Kamakshi S, captain Sunil Bhat (pilot), and captain Neil Diwan (co-pilot).

During touchdown at 5.02pm, the aircraft veered off runway 27. The fire services team of the airport immediately swung into action while the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel joined the rescue operation.

Divisional fire officer Pandurang Dudhal from Mumbai fire brigade, who was leading the operation, said, “We had to cut the cockpit with a cutter to pull the two pilots out. We also cut the glass of the cockpit.”

Paramjit Dahiya, additional commissioner of police (western Mumbai), said, “I am told that the pilot and the co-pilot suffered grievous injuries as they were the last ones to be extricated from the aircraft.”

All the injured were admitted to Criticare Asia Hospital in Andheri East.

Dr Deepak Namjoshi, who owns the hospital, said, “The co-pilot has suffered a burst fracture of D12 with paraplegia, sternal fracture with anterior mediastinal haemorrhage, and continuous lacerated wounds. We are taking him for an urgent operation. The pilot had injuries on his forehead, left upper lip, multiple abraisons over right leg, and fracture of L1 vertebra.”

Among the passengers, Kotak suffered a right-arm soft tissue injury and abrasions on forehead while his executive assistant Sali had injuries on bilateral parietal scalp. Krishnadas had fractures on his right ankle, left femur and abrasions on forehead while Sorensen had blunt trauma and right chest tenderness and three rib fractures with mild hemothorax. Kamakshi had injuries on her forehead and Sethi escaped unhurt.

One of the maintenance repair organisation employees said, “We think the aircraft skidded after its right wing hit the ground.” “The tyres of the aircraft had come off,” added Harish Shetty, deputy chief fire officer.

A senior CISF officer said the crew member and the passengers were wearing seatbelts at the time of crash landing, but they were lucky that the aircraft did not catch fire.

The runway was opened at 6.47 pm after a clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

“VSR Ventures Learjet 45 aircraft VT-DBL operating flight from Vizag to Mumbai was involved in a runway excursion (veer off) while landing on runway 27 at Mumbai airport. Visibility was 700 metres with heavy rain,” DGCA said in a statement.

V K Singh, owner of VSR Ventures, said, “I don’t know what has caused the mishap and it is a matter of investigation by DGCA. I am currently in Delhi. There was a Boeing 787 near my aircraft, and this could have caused weight turbulence, and our aircraft may have got imbalanced.” His son Rohit Singh, however, blamed the bad weather and heavy rain.

Aviation expert Mihir Bhagvati said prima facie it appeared that the aircraft skidded off the runway due to heavy rain and low visibility at the time of touchdown. “There could be also microburst or macroburst in the vicinity which could have led to the incident.’’

Speaking to HT, Chennai-based air safety expert Captain Mohan Rangnathan, a former Boeing 737 instructor pilot and a specialist in wet-runway operations, said, “From the videos of the incident, it appears that it was an uncontrolled approach and the pilots dived down to land and lost control. The nose of the aircraft was broken, indicating that the aircraft landed on the nose.”

Mangala Narsimhan, former joint general manager of the Airport Authority of India, said, “Today’s accident appears to be a ‘swinging off’ runway 27 onto the right side after touchdown. Due to the soft runway strip bordering the runway on the sides, the aircraft came to a stop on the runway strip itself. If the same runway strip had been hard, the aircraft would have continued further towards where other aircraft were parked until it hit something and stopped. That could have led to sparks resulting in a fire.”

Advocate Yashwant Shenoy, who has been fighting in the courts on air safety issues, said, “I have learnt that the weather information provided to the pilots was not accurate and updated. It said the visibility was 800 metres, but it was actually 500 metres. Mumbai’s airport weather reporting has not been accurate during monsoon.”

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