Air India plane involved in 'tail strike incident' at Pune Airport

New Delhi [India], Feb 15 (ANI): An Air India aircraft was involved in a tail strike incident on Saturday during take off from Pune after the crew saw a jeep and a person on the runway, and to avoid conflict they did an early rotation, sources said.
"On 15.02.2020, Air India A321 Aircraft VT-PPU operating flight AI-852 (Pune-Delhi) was involved in tail scrape incident on 15/02/2020 during take off from Pune. During take off roll while at 120 Knots speed, the crew saw a jeep and a person on the runway, to avoid conflict they did an early rotation," sources said.
"The aircraft has safely landed at Delhi. Air India has been advised to remove the CVR," sources added.
The Air India aircraft 321, scheduled to operate AI 825 to Srinagar, was withdrawn for investigation after it was observed to have certain marks towards the empennage area.
All crew are off roaster till the investigation is over and DGCA has summoned all the crew for further investigation.
"The 321 aircraft that was scheduled to operate AI 825 to Srinagar was observed to have certain marks towards the empennage (Tail) area. This aircraft had arrived from Pune on AI 852. The aircraft has been withdrawn for the detailed investigation," said Dhananjay Kumar, Spokesperson, Air India.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder and Solid State Flight Data Recorder (SSFDR) readouts would be carried out and the findings shared appropriately, the spokesperson added. (ANI)