110 Passengers Travel from Tiruchirappalli to Sharjah on Alternate Flight
Pilot Circles for Fuel Dumping Before Safe Landing; Alternate Flight Arranged for Passengers
Air India Express Flight Encounters Technical Issue; Passengers Arranged on Alternate Flight to Sharjah
Trichy: An Air India Express flight with 150 passengers left Trichy Airport yesterday at 5:40 PM for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
As the aircraft took off from the runway, its wheels did not retract due to a technical fault in the hydraulics.
Immediately noticing this, the pilot informed the Trichy airport control room and circled the plane in the air to deplete the fuel.
After circling the plane 26 times for more than two hours, the pilot landed safely at Trichy airport at 8:15 pm.
Trichy Collector Pradeep Kumar said:
There was a technical problem in the flight. The plane circled in mid-air to dump fuel. This information was conveyed to the district administration at 6:15 pm.
After that, we were in touch with the pilot. The pilot had said that 99.9 percent of the time there would be no harm in landing the plane.
However, we were prepared with all safety arrangements. After getting the information, Chief Minister Stalin contacted me and issued orders.
As the pilots did not inform the passengers about the malfunction in the flight, they were not alarmed. All were safely landed.
On an alternate flight, they were arranged to go to Sharjah. Kudos to the brave pilot.
He said this.
Meanwhile, yesterday at 1:59 midnight, 110 people left for Sharjah on a replacement flight called from Thiruvananthapuram.
Out of the passengers who were going to Sharjah, 34 people have postponed their journey.
