A Minister, some MLAs from north Andhra and some others went through a 35-minute ordeal in the sky when the Air India flight from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam reportedly touched the runway, took off again and hovered over the sky, reportedly due to bad weather, on Wednesday.
Minister Kala Venkata Rao, MLAs P.G.V.R Naidu and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar and some other MLAs from north Andhra as also ruling party leaders were on the flight. “Our flight touched the ground on the runway but suddenly lifted off again. I felt the thud, usually experienced when an aircraft touches the ground,” Visakhapatnam West MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu told The Hindu .
“The flight took off at 5 p.m. and the first touch down in Visakhapatnam was at 6 p.m. There was no in-flight announcement, and we were all tensed up and pressed the panic button. An announcement was then made that the pilot was unable to land due to bad weather. The flight hovered over the sea for about 35 minutes and we were all still tensed and worried whether it would land at all,” Mr. Naidu said.
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“We were all relieved and clapped in joy after the flight finally landed in Vizag Airport around 6.40 p.m. There was a lot of turbulence even during the second landing,” he added.
Sources in Air India confirmed the incident but refused to comment on the plea that only the Air Traffic Control was authorised to speak on it.