Close Shave for Druk Air
A Druk Air plane flying from Bangkok to Paro on May 1 had to turn back after a crack developed in the pilot’s flight deck left window.
A nervous passenger at Paro airport said, “One hour into the flight, the pilot in a nervous voice announced a technical problem and that we’d be flying back to Bangkok.”
The result was a nervous set of passengers as everyone wondered what the problem could be. According to sources, the plane dropped to a lower altitude and made the flight back to Bangkok.
It all started around 4.00 am in the morning in Bangkok when a series of normal checks were done on the plane and everything was found to be okay. At 4.30 am the plane took off and the flight was going smoothly when around 5.30 am the pilot noticed a crack on one of the six large flight deck windows. By this time the plane was at 30,000 feet, an altitude where oxygen content is almost zero and temperatures below freezing point. “A crack is dangerous in any altitude but more dangerous at such an altitude because of the very hostile atmospheric conditions,” said an expert. “A crack is a big deal because there have been cases when cracks have opened up leading to pilots being sucked out of their flight deck due to the sheer air pressure difference and wind speed.”
The plane dropped altitude and, in a very nervous one hour for the passenger and crew, turned back to Bangkok and made a safe emergency landing.
The flight was grounded in Bangkok and a flight immediately sent from Paro with an engineering team and a spare window, which was fixed onto the plane by 10.30 pm. The stranded passengers landed in Paro yesterday evening. “Since the sealing of the window takes eight to 24 hours to settle, the plane had to stay overnight in Bangkok and will be flying in only by May 3,” said an engineer.
According to engineers, the overheating of filaments between the multi-layered windows of a flight deck probably caused the crack. “The filaments are to ensure that the multi-layered window does not freeze at high altitudes or in cold weather but in this case it looks like they malfunctioned,” said an engineer.
Another unlikely cause could be a hit by a foreign object while flying. Experts say that they will only know when they get a report from Airbus in France where the damaged window has been sent.
A similar situation had occurred some years ago when an empty BA-146 plane developed a similar crack 25 minutes into the flight from Paro airport. The plane had already been sold to Peru so they paid the USD 18,000 repair bill for the window.
The two Airbus 319 aircraft were bought in 2004 for USD 80 million from Germany to make up Druk Air’s new fleet.
Druk Air acting managing director Tandin Jamtsho said that he was waiting for a complete report on what exactly happened.
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Click here to read the original story by Kuensel
Tags: Druk Air