Tajik air company “TajikAir” told the reporters about the details of a recent situation with its Boeing 737-300.
“The airliner made an emergency landing at the Dushanbe airport on Monday evening after failure of its altitude reporting equipment. 136 passengers of the #627 Dushanbe-Moscow (Domodedovo) flight departed on board of SomonAir’s Boeing of the same type,” Director General of TajikAir Firuz Hamroev told the reporters.
According to him, at an altitude of more than 4.2km the plane’s altitude control system reported about malfunction and further flight was impossible. Thus, the airliner returned back to the Dushanbe airport after a 4-hour long flight.
“When the crew received the signal they acted in accordance with instructions,” Mr.Hamroev has said. “The system switched to an emergency state and the captain reported that they are planning to dump the fuel and make an emergency landing. Captain’s decision was absolutely correct.”
Fuel dumping prior to landing can be explained by the fact that flights to Moscow usually take 4.5 hours and airplanes filled with the volume of fuel that exceeds the required touchdown weight. So, fuel dumping was necessary to prevent overload to the undercarriage to reduce wear and any possible damage.
Top TajikAir official also stressed that this situation can not be referred to an emergency situation since the airliner was in good condition and all parameters were normal, except the plane’s altitude control system.
“Undercarriage and engines were in good condition, there was no loss of pressure, no panic among passengers, all passengers were provided with food and drinks. Additionally, oxygen masks were not used since the flight was carried at low altitudes,” he explained.
Mr. Hamroev also said that such failures frequently occur in Boeing-737s due to frequent landings and takeoffs.
“Our Boeing 737 300 is almost 15 years old and this is the first failure of its system. We will carry out all required technical works, will find the problem and remove it, the airliner will carry out some test flights and if everything goes fine we will use it again. We have already paid all leasing payments and now it’s the property of our company,” he said.
Mr. Hamroev also added that technicians always carry out required tests prior to the flights but its impossible to test some systems which can be tested only in the course of the flight.
