Overview
- Flight 6E 2381 from Delhi carried out two go-arounds and then landed safely on Wednesday, after which post‑flight checks found scratches around the APU inlet on the Airbus A321‑252NX registered VT‑ILR and the plane was grounded for repairs and clearance.
- The affected aircraft, VT‑ILR, is an A321neo delivered to IndiGo in August 2021 and is staying at Gorakhpur airport until technical inspections and regulator sign‑off are completed.
- This event joins a reported series of at least ten tail‑impact or tail‑strike incidents involving IndiGo since 2023, with industry sources saying at least eight involved A321s and the AAIB has had an open probe of A321 tail strikes since September 2024 without public findings.
- Airbus this year updated its flight crew training manual to advise beginning the landing flare at 40 feet on the A321 rather than 30 feet on shorter A320‑family types because the A321’s longer fuselage raises the risk that an excessive nose‑up flare will contact the rear fuselage or APU inlet.
- Passengers and crew on the Gorakhpur flight were unharmed but the recurrence of aft‑fuselage contacts has prompted extra post‑flight inspections, operational delays, tighter regulator scrutiny, and could lead to wider changes in training or maintenance checks for IndiGo’s A321 fleet.