How Pakistan's denial to IndiGo flight risked 220 peoples' lives - Here's what happened during horrific hailstorm
The pilots flew the aircraft manually, without autopilot, till they left the hailstorm. Following this, they declared an urgent situation.
An IndiGo flight from New Delhi to Srinagar went through horrific turbulence on Wednesday, putting the lives of 220 people at risk as it also suffered major external damage.
All this happened after a massive storm hit Delhi-NCR on Wednesday this week, which led to heavy rainfall and dust storm.
However, the flight later safely landed at Srinagar, its original destination.
Here's what happened
The flight encountered hailstorm near Pathankot, when it was cruising at 86,000 feet. The pilot tried to steer clear of bad weather.
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When they were not allowed to do so, they considered returning to Delhi but later decided to continue moving towards Srinagar.
However, during the period, they got multiple warnings including maximum operation speed and angle of attack fault for the Airbus A321neo.
Then, the pilots flew the aircraft manually, without autopilot, till they left the hailstorm. Following this, they declared an urgent situation.
As the situation got horrific, the IndiGo flight requested to enter Pakistani airspace to avoid turbulence and the storm. However, Lahore Air Traffic Control refused.
DGCA even stated that at one point, the plane entered a steep and rapid descent of 8,500 feet per minute.
"Crew flew the aircraft manually till they exited the hailstorm. After carrying out all checklist actions (ECAM actions), the crew declared PAN PAN (urgency call) to Srinagar ATC and requested for RADAR vectors and made a safe landing with auto thrust operating normally," a statement issued by DGCA read.
It added that there was no loss of life or injury to any of the passengers on board the flight.
But, "post-flight walk-around revealed damage to the Nose radome," it stated.