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Mumbai : Kingfisher Airlines has denied reports that the pilots of the ATR plane, which skidded off the Mumbai runway on Tuesday, ran away leaving the passengers behind.
The airlines has told NDTV that the captain of the aircraft personally oversaw the evacuation of passengers.
They have also stated that the right hand propeller of the aircraft could not be switched off after the plane came to a halt because of a damaged unit.
At the moment, both the pilots and an air traffic controller in Mumbai have been de-rostered pending an inquiry.
The Kingfisher account contradicts what other sources have been saying.
As per other sources, pilots of the Kingfisher aircraft that skidded off the Mumbai runway ran away from the plane leaving the engine running.
Sources have told NDTV it has even been caught on camera.
The Kingfisher plane, which was carrying 42 passengers, was rapid and came down vertically almost nose down on the runway.
Sources and some eyewitness told NDTV that the plane landed much ahead of the touchdown point, and even after the aircraft had halted, both its propeller engines were running at full speed.
Generally, when an aircraft comes to a halt, its engines gradually slow down before shutting, which did not happen in this case.
On landing, left engine scrapped the ground and propeller blades broke. Fire and Ground safety reached the aircraft in a minute after it landed but could not start rescue since engines were on at full blast.
The ATC meanwhile was constantly asking if pilots could hear them because they wanted engines to shut down. But ATC got no response from cockpit for five minutes.
Meanwhile, since left propeller engine had slowed down since it had scrapped the ground, the right was on. To shut the right engine, the rescue crew sprayed foam on it.
The pilots came out from the top hatch of the cockpit even before safety crew had reached the spot and while the engine was till running. A kingfisher van took the pilots away.
Source: http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/did_kingfisher_pilots_abandon_passengers_as_plane_skidded.php
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