Cabin crew went through monsoon training

It's that time of the year when air travel becomes a bit frightening, even for frequent fliers. The monsoon means bad weather conditions across most of the country, and that often causes intense turbulence. Pilots, airports, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) personnel are periodically put through training sessions to handle bad weather conditions.

This year, airlines have already started pre-monsoon pilot training programmes. Even cabin crew personnel go through monsoon training as well as classes on how to deal with irate and scared passengers.


"Somewhere around April-end, our monsoon training started. We go through an in-depth theory class on the monsoons, the different weather conditions that we would encounter over different parts of the country, on the various clouds we'd have to fly through, and the set of procedures we have to follow," said a senior pilot of an airline.

Pilots are also put through simulator sessions, where they get an almost lifelike experience of flying through bad weather. "The simulator tests make pilots land on wet and slippery runways, fly through ominous clouds, land in absolute bad weather of lightning, thunder and heavy winds," says a senior ATC official in Bangalore.

Typically, during the monsoon, runways at some airports become slippery or contaminated. A contaminated runway is one that suffers water-logging. While pilots are allowed to make a landing on wet and slippery runways, no landing can occur if a runway has been categorized as contaminated.

The north-eastern regions are said to have the worst weather conditions during the monsoon. Regions over Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka are also known to have extreme weather, which makes flying
tough.

"The aircraft has warning systems on board that indicate approaching bad weather. Accordingly we decide whether it's safe to land the plane or not," says a pilot.

Airports do their bit, by putting in place systems and processes to ensure that no water-logging occurs on the tarmac. According to aviation experts, the edges of runways are generally sloping, which allows water to clear out fast. During incessant rainfall, airports would have to use various high-tech equipment to clear water from the
runway.