It was a ground crew member who noticed that the plane had taken off with an open fuel tank panel.
ATR aircraft flying for India's regional airline Alliance Air recently had to return shortly after takeoff due to an odd event. Apparently, the fuel tank panel was open when the plane took off. Fortunately, it landed safely with no reported injuries to the passengers. Authorities are investigating the incident to determine what actually transpired.
Open fuel tank panel
An Alliance Air ATR 72-600 was getting ready to fly 9I 882 from Mysore to Hyderabad in South India on June 20th. According to Flightradar24.com, the flight's departure time on that day is 14:55. However, the plane got off at 16:30, approximately an hour and a half late.
But after a member of the ground crew noticed that the plane took off with an open fuel panel, the flight was quickly asked to return. Uncertainty exists on whether the panel opened during takeoff or when the airplane took off with the panel open. A DGCA officer is quoted by the news outlet ANI as saying,
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Photo: Flightrader24.com |
“On 20.06.2023 Alliance Air AT72-600 Aircraft VT-AIY operating flight 9I-882(Mysore-Hyderabad) was involved in the air turn back as the fuel panel was observed to be open by the AME during departure from Mysore.”
Thankfully, an AME discovered the fault while the plane was in the air and quickly notified the ATC, who subsequently notified the Alliance Aircrew. The DGCA is looking into how the aircraft took off with the panel open because there have been reports that fuel was not put into the aircraft at Mysore.
