IndiGo flight 6E 225 from Navi Mumbai to Srinagar came into contact with a Visual Docking Guidance System pole while parked at Bay No. 6. All passengers and crew members were safely deboarded.
An IndiGo aircraft on a flight from Navi Mumbai to Srinagar was involved in a small ground incident at the airport on Friday morning when it came close to running into a Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS) pole while parked in its parking bay. The aircraft had left Navi Mumbai when it was being guided into its parking bay, the airline said.
IndiGo flight 6E 225 with aircraft registration VT-NOG came into contact with the VDGS pole around 9:02 am when it was in Bay No. 6. The incident occurred during the parking process, and there were no injuries.
All passengers and crew on board the aircraft were safely deboarded. Because the aircraft could not be accessed through the usual boarding bridge arrangement, passengers were taken off with manual stairs, airport authorities said.
The Visual Docking Guidance System is an airport-installed system for pilots to position their aircraft at its parking stands. It gives visual guidance to help an aircraft stop at the correct location to allow safe aircraft handling at the airport. The aircraft did hit the pole associated with this system while it was parked.
The specific reasons that led to the contact are still not known. Airport authorities have said that the matter is being examined by the appropriate authorities and that the cause of the incident will only be determined after the investigation is complete.
The flight involved IndiGo 6E 225, a scheduled service connecting Navi Mumbai to Srinagar. Flight tracking had shown the flight to be operating on Friday and was scheduled to arrive in Srinagar around 9:35 am. The incident was reported at 9:02 am when the plane was in its parking bay.
There were no injuries to passengers or crew. The safe evacuation of everyone on board made sure that the incident did not escalate into a passenger safety emergency. The aircraft and airport infrastructure will be examined further in the investigation.
Srinagar Airport also noted that business as usual at the airport had continued, despite the incident. Arrivals and departures were on schedule at the airport and there was no indication of a broader disruption to airport operations. Other passengers travelling through Srinagar were not going to be adversely affected by the incident.
The incident has since attracted attention, however, because it involved an aircraft moving on the ground at an airport. Such events can take place when aircraft are positioning and parking but in such cases, investigators check the aircraft movement, guidance procedures, ground operations, and airport equipment to determine what happened.
At present, there is no official indication that the incident was caused by a technical failure of the aircraft or the airport's docking guidance system. The authorities will have to establish the sequence of events through their inquiry before making any definitive assessment.
The incident comes at a time when aviation safety in general is under strong examination after several aircraft-related incidents in recent months. But the Srinagar Airport incident should not be linked to those incidents in the absence of evidence from the ongoing investigation; we cannot link it to the recent incidents.
For passengers on board IndiGo flight 6E 225, the good news is that everyone was safely deboarded and no injuries were reported. Details regarding the condition of the aircraft, the VDGS equipment, and findings of the inquiry will be given once the aircraft and VDGS equipment are evaluated and the report is complete.
