The Hindu : New Delhi News : A miraculous escape at Delhi airport for 123 aboard flight from Mumbai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 10, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

A miraculous escape at Delhi airport for 123 aboard flight from Mumbai

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Over 123 passengers and crew aboard a Mumbai-Delhi GoAir flight had a miraculous escape on Thursday evening when the plane made an emergency landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport here because of a “technical snag”.

Airport sources said one of the two nose-wheels of the A-320 airbus had come off during take-off at Mumbai airport.

Flight G8 456 first undertook a low fly-past over Delhi airport as engineers of Delhi International Airport Limited and the airline gathered on the runway to inspect the underbelly of the aircraft. After hovering over the airport for about 45 minutes, the aircraft landed on the main runway around 5 p.m. with all emergency measures activated.

Safe landing

“Fire tenders, ambulances, tow tractor, passenger coaches, step ladder were all positioned close to the runway for immediate de-boarding of passengers. Thanks to coordination and communication between DIAL, GoAir pilots and crew and Air Traffic Controllers, the plane landed safely,” said a DIAL official.

Some passengers aboard the plane said that about half an hour before touchdown at Delhi airport the pilot had informed them that a nose-wheel was found at Mumbai airport which could be of their aircraft. He also alerted ATC about the problem.

Later the pilot asked passengers seated in the first 11 rows to move behind as a precautionary measure when the aircraft undertook a low fly-past over the runway. The plane then hovered over the airport for about 45 minutes to burn fuel in order to make it lighter and easier to land.

The airline said the reason for the technical problem would be investigated in cooperation with the official agencies and the aircraft manufacturers.