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Snag-ridden AI twice guilty
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 9
Even as the government is looking at a complete makeover of public sector Air India as a brand name to emerge as a global airline in a merged entity, the image of the national flag carrier took a major beating today with two of its planes making emergency landing at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport.

In an unprecedented incident, first the Air India Shanghai-Bangkok-Delhi flight with 183 passengers on board made an emergency landing at the Delhi airport at about 6.30 am and then later in the afternoon the Air India flight from Dubai with 65 passengers on board made an emergency landing.

Officials of the public sector airline refused to make comments on the emergency landing of the aircrafts but said in both the incidents all the passengers were safe. Both the planes developed technical snags forcing the emergency landing.

As a result of the emergency landing there was a major disruption in the flight schedule with the runways being blocked for hours on the end after the incidents.

In fact, the main runway had just been opened following a six-hour blockade due to the Shanghai flight emergency landing when the other plane made the emergency landing. The main runway remained blocked for more than seven hours as a result of the Shanghai flight emergency landing.

The officials said there was not much disruption following the second emergency landing as the plane was immediately towed away. In the first incident, the plane could not be towed away due to some other technical snags in it.

The two emergency landings incidentally again shifted the attention on the ageing fleet of the national flag carrier. Both the merged airlines have ordered new aircrafts but it would take time for the deliveries to be made.

As per reports, the plane being used on the Shanghai flight was more than 20-year old and on the Dubai flight it was a leased aircraft. Engineers were looking at both the aircrafts and the passengers would be adjusted on other flights.

All the 183 passengers, including 14 crew members, of the Shanghai flight had a miraculous escape as the plane made an emergency landing after it developed problems in its under-carriage.

Just before landing, the pilot of the Airbus A-310 received an unsafe warning about the problems in its under-carriage and the landing gear, sources said.

The pilot then alerted the air traffic control which asked him to land on the main runway in full emergency conditions. The passengers and the baggage were offloaded on the main runway itself.

As soon as the tractor tried to tow it away, the nose-wheel collapsed and the plane got stuck on the main runway.

In fact, when the aircraft landed, it was an emergency landing but thanks to the pilot he did an absolutely safe landing, said the Air India’s public relations chief.

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