The Hindu : Front Page : Aircraft make emergency landing in capital, Kozhikode

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 04, 2005

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Aircraft make emergency landing in capital, Kozhikode

Kerala Bureau

Fire alarm in Air-India flight; engine failure for Indian Airlines flight

GROUNDED: The A 310-300 aircraft of Air-India which made an emergency landing in Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Saturday morning being taken to the parking bay. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The airports in Thiruvanthapuram and Kozhikode witnessed emergency landings by an Air-India and an Indian Airlines aircraft on Saturday causing anxious moments to the hundreds of passengers onboard the aircraft and the airport authorities.

Twenty-five passengers suffered bruises during evacuation after the Dubai-bound Air-India flight made an emergency landing, 33 minutes after take-off, at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Saturday following a fire alarm.

"The A 310-300 aircraft landed at 9.36 a.m. and all the 119 passengers, including seven infants and 10 crew members, aboard were evacuated safely," airline sources said.

The AI 981flight, which took off at 9.03 a.m., was made to return after the commander noticed "fire-warning lights on" on the cockpit panel, reportedly from an auxiliary power unit of the aircraft. The aircraft was just seven miles away from the airport and was flying in a westerly direction over sea then. The commander alerted the apron control at the airport, which, in turn, informed the airport authorities, the city police, Fire and Rescue Services, other agencies and hospitals in the city.

Although no smoke was noticed aboard or outside the aircraft, the airport authorities decided to evacuate the passengers through the two "chutes" of the aircraft as they did not want to take any risk. The 25 passengers received minor bruises while coming down the chute in the melee.

"No one needed medical treatment and the bruises were minor," according to Air-India Manager Ratan Ghosh.

The flights of Qatar Airways and Gulf Air were delayed as the runway had been blocked.

Later, Air-India flew in another A 310-300 aircraft from Mumbai to clear the stranded passengers, accommodated in hotels in the city. The flight took off at 6.50 p.m.

Airport sources said the grounded aircraft had fuel for flying five hours.

Engineering personnel who arrived in the flight from Mumbai were examining the grounded aircraft.

At Calicut Airport

The Indian Airlines plane made an emergency landing at Calicut Airport on Saturday evening after one of its engines failed during flight from Mumbai. According to airport authorities, a timely alert from a local civilian saved the 62 people on board, including the crew. The Sharjah-bound IC-595 flight landed safely on one engine at 5.48 p.m. The flight to Sharjah was cancelled and passengers were lodged in hotels.

The airport authorities declared full emergency following a phone alert about the engine failure from a man named Ayyappan belonging to Valluvamburam near here. Mr. Ayyappan called the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) control room saying that he saw smoke and fire and heard a thunderous noise from the engine of Airbus-320 which was approaching the airport. The CISF alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) personnel who immediately alerted the plane's pilot Capt. M.A. Zaheer. Soon after the alert, Capt. Zaheer switched off the engine and requested emergency landing. The plane landed safely with one engine shut off. The Mumbai-Kozhikode-Kochi-Sharjah flight had 23 Kochi-bound passengers on it. Ninety-nine Sharjah-bound passengers had been waiting at Calicut Airport. All the passengers were lodged in different hotels. The flight has been rescheduled. The passengers will be sent to Sharjah on Sunday, said Indian Airlines officials.

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