-KATHMANDU
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has started its investigation on the Malindo Air Boeing 737-900ER (9M-LNJ) aircraft that skidded off the runway after crew rejected takeoff due to takeoff configuration warning on Thursday at around 9:45 p.m. (Local Time).
The Pilots on the flight informed that the incident was occurred after receiving the warning of technical problems.
For probing the cause behind the incident, the group of three technical investigation team has been set. The initial investigation will be carried out by CAA of Nepal but for detailed investigation, the operator and the relevant National Aviation authority where the aircraft has been registered will carry out the investigation.
Following the incident, the only sole international airport of the county was closed for 13 hours halting all the flight operation on the airport.
In the event of aircraft malfunction, the recognition of a significant abnormality, or an ATC instruction to stop the aircraft during the takeoff roll, transport aircraft in Performance Category ‘A’ should be able to safely reject the takeoff if the decision to do so is made at a speed not greater than the correctly calculated decision speed (V1).
A successful rejection should be achieved if the response is immediate and completed in accordance with prescribed procedures (SOPs). After V1, a reject should only be considered if there is a strong reason to believe that the aircraft will not fly.
Depending on Operator SOPs, a call of “STOP” to reject a takeoff based on stated criteria will usually be able to be made by either pilot. However, in some cases, the action following such a call will be only for the pilot in command to take; regardless of which pilot is Flying.
