DGCA suspends 2 Jet pilots for Riyadh incident

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended two pilots of a Jet Airways flight which overshot the runway at Riyadh prior to take off on August 3, an official said on Monday.

"The DGCA has suspended the licence of both the pilots involved in the runway excursion incident at Riyadh, pending investigations," said a top DGCA official on Monday.

According to a Jet Airways statement, the incident occurred early on Friday when Flight 9W-523 aborted take-off and departed the runway at the King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi Arabian capital.

There were no casualties and all the 142 passengers and seven crew members of the Mumbai-bound flight were evacuated safely and later flew to India.

The Aviation Investigation Bureau (AIB) of Saudi Arabia has said that the Jet Airways Boeing 737 aircraft attempted to take-off from the taxiway K, parallel to Runway R33.

"While visibility was high and no obstacles or FOD (foreign object debris) were on the taxiway, the aircraft accelerated with full take-off power and exceeded the taxiway, onto the unpaved area ending up close to the exit of taxiway G4, north of taxiway K," an AIB statement said.

The AIB is probing the incident jointly with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India.

Jet had earlier said it had reported the matter to the DGCA.

--IANS

qn/in/mr