The Hindu

Bangalore, Mar 14: Two days after an Air Deccan aircraft skidded off the city’s airport runway injuring nine persons, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has started finalizing its technical report on the accident. The DGCA officials had retrieved and inspected the flight data recorder from the ATR 72-500 aircraft on Sunday.

The aircraft was towed away for investigation. At 10.17 am on Saturday March 11, the 72-seater aircraft had jumped off after the touchdown, before going up in the air and bumping twice. It then came to a halt on the green patch next to the tarmac. The nose wheel fell off, the main wheels got damaged and the propellers got cut in the process. However, the Airports Authority of India confirmed that the runway was not damaged, but the aircraft required major repairs.

Although there was no fire and the body of the aircraft was intact, the accident affected flight services for about two hours. A total of 20 flights were cancelled, others rescheduled, causing trouble to about 2,000 passengers. Air Deccan had promised to refund the fare to all the passengers of the affected aircraft.

When contacted, the local DGCA officials said the technical report on the accident would be submitted by the Hyderabad-based Air Safety Department of the directorate to the Civil Aviation Ministry.