Indian airline fined Rs3 million over series of tail strike incidents

India's civil aviation authority has imposed a Rs3-million penalty on IndiGo over the airline's record of four tail strike incidents within a span of just six months.

A tail strike occurs when the tail or empennage of an aircraft hits the ground or any other stationary object during take-off or landing.

The country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) carried out a special audit of IndiGo airlines, and reviewed their documentation and procedure on operations, training, engineering and Flight Data Monitoring programme.

During the special audit, "certain systemic deficiencies" were observed in IndiGo's documentation pertaining to operations and training procedures and engineering procedures.

The four tail strike incidents — recorded within a span of 6 months in 2023 — involved IndiGo's A321 aircraft, a senior DGCA official confirmed.

The authority issued a show-cause notice to the airline, directing them to submit a reply within the stipulated time period. The reply was reviewed at various levels and was not found satisfactory.

On Wednesday, the DGCA suspended the licence of the IndiGo pilot and co-pilot for having made a tail strike while landing at Ahmedabad Airport last month. Their licences were suspended for three months and one month, respectively.

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