A woman pilot averted an air tragedy on Sunday by her deft handling of a Guwahati-bound aircraft after it lost one of its nosewheels during takeoff from the Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar.
The ATR aircraft had 48 passengers. Its five-member crew comprised three women, including the pilot.
Captain Urmila Yadav, circled the Air India flight AI-9760 over the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International (LGBI) airport here for about one hour before she made a skilful emergency landing.
Earlier she asked the crew to shift some goods from the cockpit to the rear to reduce the load on the front, to facilitate safe landing.
The passengers thanked the pilot for saving their lives.
Gogoi's pat for pilot
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu. “Hats off to you and your co-pilot for your daring and courageous act which saved the precious lives of passengers,” he told her over the phone, an official release said.
Narrating his experience, noted Assamese linguist and a senior official of the Assam Agricultural University Sumanta Chaliha told The Hindu the passengers got wind of the emergency situation only when the crew gave flight safety demonstration for the second time after flying for about 30 minutes.
“When we asked the crew if anything had gone wrong, we were told that there was a minor technical snag and it was being taken care of. However, after some time they made a formal announcement of an emergency landing. We came to know that the aircraft lost one of its nose wheels. A woman passenger seated in front of me fainted and several passengers started crying. I was calm and composed, leaving everything to God.
“We came to know that the aircraft flew extra time to burn fuel midair and as soon as the aircraft landed the engine was switched off. It came to a halt quickly. While getting down I noticed that one of the nose wheels was missing.”
It was the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of the Indian Air Force at Kumbhirgram which noticed that something had fallen off the aircraft after it took off. It then alerted the LGBI ATC.
“We knew that the aircraft was coming with a wheel of nose assembly missing. The pilot was informed and asked if she would land or fly off. When she said she would land, she was asked to do a mandatory low pass so that the ground staff could inspect the nose assembly. We requested her to hold over Guwahati for sometime till we cleared the runway. A Kolkata-bound Spicejet flight was allowed to take off and an in-coming Air India flight from Delhi allowed to land. After the runway was cleared, the aircraft was allowed to land. The pilot really did a skilful landing and handled the entire situation very well. If the aircraft had made a normal landing without knowing that one of its nose wheels was missing then anything could have happened,” said an ATC official.
The scheduled departure of the flight from Silchar was 7.20 a.m. but it was delayed due to inclement weather. The flight took off at 9 a.m.
Keywords: Air India plane, emergency landing
Hats off to Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu.The entire nation is proud of both of us.India is in need of many more people like you.
Its really a great did. Yes, We need to celebrate Captain Urmila Yadav's brave & skilful. Captain Urmila Yadav is Our Hero. I salute you Captain.
Madame Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu, congrats.... Great. We are proud of you.
strilking pilots of AI, come back to work.
There are 100+ comments here because its a woman pilot and the news
heading specially mentions that. had it been a male, the news heading
would not have mentioned that and I doubt even 1/5 th of the comments
would still have been there.
Any way, good job by the pilot!
Efforts made are outstanding,,and to contorl the situation with immense pressure must be well appriciated..nice job captain.
Well Done Captain!, we are proud of you. You showed exceptional courage and nerves of steel when confronted with a situation such as this. Lives of so many people were in your hands and you did your duty so well. Our heartfelt gratitude and good wishes for you and the co pilot.
I Salute you Ma'am .
Salute to Captain's and crew. Excellent self confidence shown to people
Iam amazed to see the response of our Media. They are more intrested in radhey maa, nirbal baba... Modi-sanjay joshi fight.
And no justified coverage for the act this heroic lady. I salute to her.
Its a shame on our media
Very impressive. Very good job Captain!!! I wish both of you should be
recognized.
So would this not be a news if a 'Male' pilot had handled the situation
skillfully? Why such a male chauvinistic headline and news article? Is
Hindu going the way of other newspapers by writing 'Sensational'
headlines to draw more attention? Did not expect this from Hindu!!
Pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger a hero for safely setting his crippled airliner down in New York's Hudson River is a neighbor to our home here at Dublin CA and now we have a Hero in our Mother Land India! We need to celebrate Captain Urmila Yadav's brave, skilful emergency landing, saving precious lives in our country as we did for Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger here in Danville California. Captain Urmila Yadav is Our Hero!
I really appreciate you..Excellent..You saved many lives..You are the hero of this country..well done madam...
What exactly is the bigger red arrow pointing at in the picture? And as for the people complaining about sexism please calm yourselves. Aviation is a male dominated industry and its nice to see women being highlighted for their skill in performing task which were usually attributed to being the exclusive of men.
Brave act done by captain and the co-pilot.Kudos to you!
Commedable job done by the pilot and the crew. These kind of people are the need of the hour.
Dont hate on the headline because it says 'woman pilot'. If you are in the industry, you will know that women are discriminated against as lower skilled, sometimes openly. I applaud The Hindu for sensing this and raising the confidence of women pilots.
And for all of you haters, do not think you can become a 'progressive' thinker just by typing things like 'sexist' and 'offensive'. Enter the ground reality to know the truth!
urmila pilot is the women power and pride to the nation.she must surely
get prestigious award
It is high time that AIR INDIA is handed over back to Tatas from whom
the then Government of India ' confiscated ' by nationalising the TATA
AIRWAYS . The business of the government is to frame policies for
others to run business and it is not for them to run any business for
the simple reason they are the first to break the laws created by them
.
Why tax payers money is wasted in reviving AirIndia and many other
government undertakings every now and then .The relevant ministers
controlling these government undertakings kill them due to their own
whims and fancies.
hatts off to mrs.Urmila Gupta ji...We appreciate for being an captain of indian woman.
Bigg Thanks for saving those lives.
Ms. Urmila high respect for your Brave act.
You must me awarded with high ranking award!
Bravo to the pilot and brickbats on the butts of Air India who still haven't paid their pilots wages!
Hats off to both the Pilots. Clever, Brave and a well done Job.
Ms.Urmila.. We are really proud of you. Thanks for saving us from a
disaster.. Keep up the good work
Congratulation Dear GOD is always with u..........
Today i recall your Nagpur emergency landing without runway light in
dark with such a bad weather.........
she is really brave,i always feel proud as she is my family member.
We love u lot Take care
salute the pilot for her courage and skill and thank god for his grace.The maintenance must be improved a lot.Phase out old aircraft.
Wow! Well done Captain Urmila!
May her tribe increase!
what a brave and smart act in terrible situation. Kudos to Captain
Urmila Yadav !!
Kudos to the brave lady!!!!
Excellent work. Reminds me of my own incident at bagdogda airport when our right engine (Indian Airlines) caught fire during takeoff. The plane was piloted by a lady who took the risk and safely stopped the plane even though it was at full speed. Thanks to her, I and other co-passengers got out safely.
Amazing women and their team! Their presence of mind and ablity to handle the situation and not panicking at such critical times saved the lives of so many. Something for everyone to learn from!
And if everyone is as responsible as this at their work, it can do wonders!
Respect!
India is very proud to have such a brave women.
Fantastic and Brave efforts by the crew led by women powers, Its high
time we should realize and respect Women's Power who is our
Mother,Sisters, Wifes and Daughters.
Captain Urmila Yadav who saved the lives of many passengers with her
brave act should be suitably rewarded and awarded with Bravery Award.
God Bless you all and keep up your Good works in future too.
Thats really great. Captain Urmila's presense of mind and courage is
really great. Mother India Thanks you for saving her people. God Bless
you.
Urmila Madam , Really proud of You , Great character, coolness and
courage shown by you!!!
Kudos to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of the Indian Air Force at
Kumbhirgram which at the first place rang the buzzer. My salute to the
Brave Lady & the entire crew for skillfully handling the situation as a
team.
Hats off Captain Urmila Yadav, and we request to the Indian Authority to Reward her with a Padma Bushan Award and other highest award which is not equal to her most percious act.
She has clearly done a great job, but why is the news article saying
'woman pilot'?! Would you say 'man pilot' in the headline and opening
sentence if the captain was male?! It's absurd.
Excellent, No word to describe their courage and their efforts.
By the way, is it good to have a swimming pool kind of water storing
facility near the runways to manage these kind of situation.
chandrasekaran
She has done great work. Any one in that situation could have panicked. But she handled situation bravely..Salute to her..
The alert & watchful ATC officials and the courageous & skillful handling of the situation by the Pilots & crew members is appluaded. Hats off to them ! God bless them !!
I salute captain and her team and no doubt the nation is proud the team
but i feel same on safety checking team, how they allowed the plan take off without proper check-up.That must be investigate?
Certainly the caption may cause a bit of discomfort for the educated few, and pardon me for stressing educated *few* because unfortunately, that is the state of our nation. I personally believe that the caption is apt - you might want to look at it from the perspective of the majority who read newspapers and still believe that a woman's true domicile is the cabin and not the cockpit. By saying, "Women pilot makes..", that majority now knows that (yes), women, today, also control planes and they do a pretty neat job too.
I agree with the comments by others that it is insulting to emphasize
the pilot was a woman.There were many women pilots who participated in
the AI strike so their number in aviation industry is not scarce that it
needs to be mentioned like this.And it is the job of any pilot
irrespective it was a man or a woman.
Hats Off to YOU All.,.,
But need to avoid like this situation in future.
Am I the only one that finds the title of this article extremely sexist?!
India is very proud to have such a brave women.
One needs nerves of steel to handle a situation like this and you have it. It would be interesting to hear from you how you handled the situation, what was going on in your mind...
Indian govt should reconsider to run the AI. It is better to save people than making money.
YOU deserve the Baradha Rathna indeed more than anyone else. I bow my head in real admiration to you and your wonderful crew. May all Gods always bless you.
It's so terrifying going through this piece of news. It's miracle and Captain Urmila and her team deserves credit for saving 48 valuable lives on board.
I truly appreciate both Ms. Urmila's and her co- pilot's courage and judgement given the situation !. But the larger concerns here are these frequent goof-ups with the aircrafts and their pathetic quality control. It indicates how cheap a persons life in India is. The concerned airline must be sued, fined heavily and the particular aircraft must be forfeited.
I am overwhelmed! I can understand how tense it can become sitting in a small cabin all those many miles up in the air. Keeping ones cool in such situations is exemplary and rarely seen. Many salutes to this brave lady.
Very well done Captain Urmila!
And, why stress 'woman pilot'? Why can't the news item just say, pilot? If it had been a man, will the news item say 'man pilot'? A pilot is a pilot irrespective of man or woman. If she is not capable of handling the flight, emergency situations, would she have been made a captain? Does your 'special correspondent' think women cannot handle emergencies and act smart in tough situations ?
Kudos to the pilot. This shows the skill level and training alone can bring in the performance, irrespective of Gender. for the passengers, she is God now :)
Great work by the pilot (I don't want to specify gender, its a bias. By the way i think every one forgot the one responsible for losing that wheel.
Air India pilots especially needs pilots who can land the planes without wheels that's the skill expected from them given the poor maintenance of aircraft.
Imagine a condition if the dropping of Tyre is not noticed. By the way is the plane Tyre easily droppable type?
Why the caption "Woman pilot.......". Why you have not reported "Pilot makes skillful...........". I am surprised that The Hindu also echoes male chauvinistic views as if a woman handling skillful job is a news!!!
Can this article be more condesending? Is it such a big deal that a
competent (which is expected in a pilot whose plane I am flying in)
pilot successfully landed the plane? Should you rub it on people's faces
that she is a woman?
Why to highlight it is a woman? It seems an insult as it is expressed
as a sign of surprise. Both men and women pilots are getting same
training and skills. It is the bravery, that needs to be admired.
Kudos to the person who did this fabulous job, but don't give it a
gender based view, that too in Hindu. We are living in a world where we
have women astronauts.
excellent job.. handled the situation cool headed... thats very important.. salute to the entire crew.
May Allah bless people,good effort by the Captain,good co-ordination from all the people,together it is a team work,keep it up.
The title of this article is prejudice to women’s capability. Does the title mean that women do not usually succeed in skilful emergency landing. Was this an exceptional case for woman pilots?
I believe all qualified pilots are skilful irrespective of their gender. I won’t hesitate to fly in a plane with woman pilot.
I wonder how the editor missed such an obvious prejudice in the title.
good pilot but bad airlines depends on Indian Goverment
Great job. Hats off to your courage and presence of mind.We need people
like you in our daily life.
What as pilot being a woman got to do anything with the skill - that it
has to make the headline ?
She has done every Indian proud by her calm and courageous act. We need people like her to set an example for others and especially the youth to emulate. We need that the country takes a note of this and applaud her generously.
Hats off you lady, you truly are a saviour of so many lives, so many families, their dreams.. God bless you
The Hindu should post a follow-up on the investigation of this accident.
Well done pilot !! When Air India has such skillful piolts why do they have to protest and under utilise their ability.
I have no words to express my feeling towords the brave act done by Madame Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu.
Thank God. Lives are saved. Pilots.Urmila & Yashu have had the courage &
confidence, which lead to safe landing. Really Great. Let this incident
pronounce...there should be no discrimination against WOMEN anywhere in
the WORLD. They are so blessed by ALMIGHTY that they take care of fellow
human beings in the Aircraft with Love. Let her interview be published
in rest of the MEDIA so that world is aware of & People can emulate good
things from them. HATS OFF.
Hats off to you,ma'am! We salute you! You've done a courageous
act,saving many lives. Really proud of an Indian!
I find the title of this article to be extremely sexist and
condescending. The title almost sounds like women pilots are not
normally expected to be skillful and to handle emergencies. That a woman
pilot did land a plane successfully in an emergency is news! Would you
for instance put in the gender of the pilot if it happened to be a male
pilot?
Ms. Yadav's skill is really appreciated; one would think all pilots would be trained to handle emergencies like this.
It is ironic to read a "women pilot" has landed the plane successfully. If a man does it, is the tile going to be "a man pilot" When a women can be Prime Minister of a country, why not a pilot? There is only one chromosome difference between the gender! Other than that I do not see much of a difference. I expect more than this from Hindu!
While congratulating Madame Captain Urmila for her brave act, one thing is highly disturbing us, how our air craft are maintained in such a poor way!
I greately appreciate the calm and couregeous attitude u
showd...........THREE CHEERS....for the captian
Kudos to the Captain. Job well done !!
It is now time to hand over Air India to a private company as no one would trust airworthyness of Air India planes, with worst air safety standards. It was a brave and thoughtfull alertness of Indian Air Force control tower and calm thinking of Captain Urmila Yadav who saved the lives of many passengers with her brave act.
Kudos to the captain and the co-pilot. I wish their contribution to be recognized.
This is the person we want.Not the striking pilots in Air India. Well done Capt Urmila madam.God bless you.
Expecting another crash landing with no wheels into the Arabian Sea by UPA of the Indian Economy
Ah, a WOMAN pilot made that landing. If a male pilot had landed the
plane, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have focused on the gender. I guess
that's because men are expected to make safe landings.
While praising the Pilot, we should not lose sight of the fact that one nose wheel had got detached while taking off. This is clear indication of failure to observe inspection and maintenance schedules for the aircraft. Or it may indicate severe undulations in the runway. I have always observed that the take-off and landing are much smoother in European, American and Middle East airports. Why?
Thank God!!!
Kudos to the Captain Urmila and the entire crew of AI9760, for the brave efforts and presence of mind, and ensuring safe landing.
However, what is of greater concern is the poor quality of MRO - Mainteanca & Repairs operations service of Air India. Something like this should never ever happened. That it is happened means either incompetence of Ground Crew at Slichar from where the flight took off.
Or was it an attempt to sabotage. This must be investigated.
This is a good example to all of us.we need more such brave,intelligent
people who can tackle the problem efficiently when the situation
demands.Hats off to you madam.
Capy.Urmila needs to be not only complimented on her deft handling of the aircraft and landing without any mishap whatsoever.Her calm
demeanor and cool presence of mind have averted a major disaster.
Air India and the nation should be proud of her.She should be rewarded by being deputed for training on the DREAMLINER aircraft, given double increments and promoted in grade.And all her male colleagues presently on strike should take a lesson or two from her
on how to handle an emergency.Bravo Madam.God Bless You.
What about an Investigation? its a serious issue ...
Bravo to Captain Urmila & Crew.
The Pilot's adept handling of the situation definitely deserves an
applause. However, the bigger question is for Air-India to answer. Why
do such malfunctions happen only on Air India air crafts ? It is utterly
unbelievable that a wheel comes off an aircraft that's been inspected by
ground crew and declared fit for flying. What's the next item to fall
off Air India planes.. a wing or the rudder ?
Thanks Captain Urmila! Country salutes you!
You have saved lives of several people today. May God Bless You and Your Family!
She defenitely deserve an award for her bravery. But unfortunately here all awards and positions are giving on the basis of political nexus instead of merits. Furthermore those responsible for the proper maintanance should be given exemplary punishment. Our rulers' secret understanding with private sector is the cause behind the pathetic plight of our most of the public sector undertakings. These kind of incidents will reduce the number of passengers of Air India, which is already a sinking ship.
Well done Captain Urmila and the crew.
No one seems to be concerned as to how the aircraft was cleared to fly
passengers at first place. Aircraft looses its nose wheel during take-
off,how did the aircraft pass its fitness tests before its flight?
Please, Mr Parthasarathy!
Please stop being patronizing here and start your usual hymns, chants and stereo typical allusions about women in India.
This has nothing to do with Ms. Yadav being an woman. It boils down to good training, great experience and terrific attitude.
Please don't rake up superfluous arguments.
So, what has Air India learned from this? Why did the nose wheel
fall? How can it avoid this situation from happening again? Whose
responsibility was it to check these things and has the check been
done at regular intervals? If Air India is really concerned about the
lives of passengers and wants to avoid such anxious moments for
passengers on its planes, it should not dismiss this as a one-off
accident and shirk its responsibility.
A couple of more such episodes, and its planes will fly near-empty,
with money for fuel spent from our tax money (the bail-out money).
And of course, hats-off to the pilot who corrected the mistake of
somebody else, the tough way.
Great effort by the pilot but whats worth reviewing is why did the nose wheel fall off
in the first place ?? Was the mandatory check and review done properly before take
off - are these being followed diligently, every single time, for all the aircrafts ??
Brave and clever act by the Pilot. But how did the front wheel can go
off after take off?! Is this the condition of Air India???!
COngratulations to the Pilots. It is really a Brave and a Skillful act. An ivestigation have to be done, why and how the tire came off.
Is the flight maintenance not done properly? Care should be taken that this should not repeat.
Great work done by Urmila, Yashu and all the members of the crew flying AI 9760. We are proud of you all and a hearty congratulations for saving the lives of the passengers. This has demonstrated the Women Power in India is growing and we must all extend support to all such pilots who care for the passengers. I am happy that the striking pilots were not flying the aircraft. We need to reward and recognize such pilots and crew members who are dedicated towards the consumers. All the best! Bejon Misra, Founder, Consumer Online Foundation, New Delhi, India. 28 Years in the Consumer Movement in India
We salute Capt.Urmila & her team for the extraordinary courage and presence of mind.We need such persons in all important & responsible positions in our land.God bless them with long life to serve the people !
Really, its a courageous act the Captain Urmila Yadhav has displayed during the demanding situation with two ladies crew. May the Almighty bless her and the crew members with ever lasting happiness who have shown their temperament in that situation.
Hope the Central Govt will definitely consider for nomination to Par Vir Chakar for this bravery action shown.
Also the Aircraft Maintenance Team checklist should be cross verified for their comments before they gave green signal for aircraft departure. Hope the concerned department will take necessary action to avoid such incidents in future. Syed Sartaj Ahmed
The pilots definitely deserve congratulations - but does it really
matter whether the pilot was male or female? If the pilot had been a
male would the headline have read - "Man-pilot makes emergency landing".
Was specifying the gender of the pilot really necessary? Or is the
headline-writer surprised that a woman has done her job well?
Madame Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu, Intelligent, Sharp Skill, Good team work, and trust in each other, Hats off.
Why emphasize the gender of the pilot?
While a section of AI pilots are grounding to halt international services, here a courageous woman captain, grounds the flight to safety with great presence of money and loads of courage. Let their tribe increase.
Hats off to yo Madame Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu for the exemplary courage, determination and presence of mind. Who says women are weak. The nation should be proud the team.
She should get an AWARD..
Well done Urmila madam
I really applaud this brave act by the captain and her team. These are the kind of people we require in all responsible positions in our country, and not someone who lands the plane front wheel first!
Please Email the Editor