VishwasDass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, May 19: Air India’s New Delhi-Bhubaneswar flight (AI873) Tuesday made an emergency landing at Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport after the aircraft’s windshield developed cracks, leaving 169 passengers on-board in a tizzy. All passengers were safe.
The Bhubaneswar-bound flight took off from New Delhi airport at 11 am and was scheduled to land at Biju Patnaik International Airport at 1.05 pm.
Meanwhile, the aircraft’s pilot detected cracks on the windshield and sought Lucknow airport’s air traffic control tower’s (ATC) permission at around 11.50 am to make an emergency landing. After required clearances, the flight touched the Lucknow airport at around 12.30 pm.
The passengers had a nightmarish experience as they had to spend around eight hours at Lucknow airport because of delay by the state-run airline to arrange another aircraft to ferry passengers from Lucknow to Bhubaneswar.
Air India (Bhubaneswar) station manager Tapas Ranjan Ray told this newspaper that another aircraft was sent from New Delhi to Lucknow at around 5.45 pm which took off from Lucknow at 8 pm. The flight is expected to descend at Bhubaneswar airport at 9.30 pm.
Lucknow airport director SC Hota told Orissa POST over phone that the flight’s pilot sought emergency landing from Lucknow ATC when the plane was hovering over Madhya Pradesh air space and was subsequently granted permission.
“As soon as we learnt about the flight’s technical snag, officials swung into action and granted permission for emergency landing. We followed all protocols of the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). Passengers were taken care of and provided with meals by Air India,” Hota remarked.
One of the passengers who shared picture of the aircraft in micro blogging site— Twitter revealed that the windshield appeared to have got shattered.
Sources said passengers exchanged heated arguments with Air India staff at Lucknow airport as the airline had failed to arrange another plane to transport flyers.
BPIA director Sharad Kumar could not be reached for his comments.
